LIBRARY 
 
 University of 
 IRVINE^
 
 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS
 
 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 A Revelation and an Indictment 
 of Sovietism 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL gOMPERS 
 
 President of The American Federation of Labor 
 
 Author of "Labor and the Common Welfare," 
 
 "Labor and the Employer," etc. 
 
 With the Collaboration of 
 WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING 
 
 Author of " Sovietism: The A IB C of Russian 
 Bolshevism According to the Bolshevists". 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 681 FIFTH AVENUE
 
 Copyright 1921 
 By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Ruentd 
 
 f tinted in (A t/nld <S<Ol / America
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 I HAVE been under the necessity of observing the Bol- 
 shevist movement from close quarters for many years. 
 I have had to contend with it almost daily long before 
 it seized the power in Russia in the name of Communism 
 and Soviet. Trotzky is only one of the Bolshevist leaders 
 who long sojourned in this country to plague the Ameri- 
 can labor movement. And the few thousands who have 
 returned to Soviet Russia represent but a small part of 
 the forces of revolutionary mania in America. These 
 forces are not strong enough seriously to threaten 
 American labor provided they are isolated and under- 
 stood. But they must be understood and isolated. 
 
 While the labor movement of the world is gradually 
 but steadily shaking itself free of the illusion that the 
 Soviets are a workingmen's government the first work- 
 ingmen's government conservative powers are begin- 
 ning to give them commercial and political support and 
 a part of the press is engaged in finding virtuous reasons 
 for this policy. The pace was set by the British-Soviet 
 trade agreement and by Lloyd George's speech in Par- 
 liament in which he contended, with an intentional para- 
 dox but still quite seriously, that the Bolshevists had sud- 
 denly become moderates. The work of labor in repudi- 
 ating Bolshevism has thus become more difficult. Certain 
 conservatives and reactionaries pretend for motives of 
 their own that they no longer have much objection to 
 
 v
 
 vi FOREWORD 
 
 the Soviets. They are willing to trade with cannibals, 
 to use an expression of Lloyd George. But labor cannot 
 affiliate or associate with cannibals or with tyrants who 
 rule over labor by the Red Terror and the firing squad. 
 
 "Whether an anti-labor despotism rules over one of 
 the greatest peoples of the earth may be a matter of 
 indifference to the masters of the British Empire as long 
 as that despotism is willing to meet the Empire half 
 way and to sign away the title to the territories and 
 natural wealth of the nation. It cannot be a matter of 
 indifference to labor. 
 
 Labor's interest in putting forth the truth about the 
 Soviets is in part altruistic. Labor's regard for the wel- 
 fare of the Russian workers is deep and genuine. But 
 it also knows that if an anti-labor despotism may be 
 made to work in one country however inefficiently it 
 will encourage the enemies of labor to try the same 
 methods elsewhere. Moreover, if the Soviets are given 
 a certain permanence and success as ''moderates" by the 
 aid of certain governments and financiers they will cer- 
 tainly continue to represent this success to the labor 
 of the world as having come to them from their own 
 efforts as "ultra-revolutionists." 
 
 The outward success of the Soviets with capitalist 
 backing would cost the capitalists themselves dearly in 
 the end. But labor would pay, and pay heavily from the 
 beginning. 
 
 The Soviets may or may not reach a common under- 
 standing of real practical importance with cynical im- 
 perialists and capitalistic adventurers. There is no pos- 
 sible common ground between Bolshevism and organized 
 labor. Nor will the proposed economic alliance between
 
 FOREWORD vii 
 
 Bolshevism and Reaction be able to force labor to com- 
 promise with the Soviets. In the long run this alliance 
 will help to make still more clear to the wage-earners 
 the true character of Bolshevism. But its first result is 
 to re-inforce the already formidable Bolshevist propa- 
 ganda. 
 
 The miserable collapse of the revolution called by the 
 Soviets in Germany in March, following upon their 
 failure in January and February to capture the labor 
 unions of Italy and France, would have spelled the end 
 of the Bolshevist menace as far as labor is concerned. 
 But then came the British-Soviet trade agreement, the 
 laudatory speech of Lloyd George, and a renewed flood 
 of pro-Soviet propaganda from capitalist and so-called 
 "liberal" quarters. So that the Bolshevist propaganda 
 menace, while in a new form, is more threatening than 
 ever, and continues to strike at all the foundations of 
 our democratic civilization and, in particular at the 
 principles that underlie the labor movement. 
 
 The American labor movement has lost no opportunity 
 to prove its warm friendship for the Russian people and 
 for the Russian Revolution. It has not hesitated to send 
 its greetings and offer of support even to Socialists such 
 as those associated with Kerensky although American 
 labor is not and never has been socialistic. Officials of 
 American labor unions have not scrupled for this pur- 
 pose to associate themselves with certain Socialists of this 
 country who supported the war in a common address 
 to the Kerensky government. American labor also, in 
 its earnest wish to reach the Russian people after the 
 Bolshevist revolution, went so far as to address a mes-
 
 viii FOREWORD % 
 
 sage to the Russian nation in care of the Soviets. Both 
 messages are quoted in the Appendix. 
 
 From the early beginnings of the first Russian Revo- 
 lution in 1905 every occasion has been seized to demon- 
 strate friendship. In 1921 the Executive Council of the 
 American Federation of Labor once more reiterated its 
 friendly attitude in the following words: 
 
 It should, be understood clearly that between the 
 people of the United States and the great masses of the 
 people of Russia there has been, is and will continue to 
 be the most earnest and sincere friendship, and that the 
 people of the United States express no sentiment to the 
 contrary except towards those in Russia who are destroy- 
 ing the opportunities of the Russian people for demo- 
 cratic self-government, and who, on the contrary, are 
 imposing upon the Russian people a brutal, defenseless 
 tyranny. This friendship is the friendship of the work- 
 ing people and of all the people of our country for a 
 great people whose character and aspirations have ever 
 justified the confidence, respect and friendship of all 
 liberty loving people, and the earnest hope that the sit- 
 uation in Russia may so change that freedom, justice, 
 democracy and humanitarianism may be the guiding 
 principles of their every day lives. For that time and 
 opportunity American labor fervently anticipates that 
 the true bond of international fraternity may be estab- 
 lished between the toilers of Russia and those of 
 America. 
 
 The present volume endeavors to give a balanced and 
 equal consideration to all the more important phases of 
 Sovietism. But, naturally, I am in a particularly favor- 
 able situation to discuss the Soviet attitude towards labor 
 both in Russia and throughout the world. The chapters 
 dealing with this part of the subject should be of interest
 
 FOREWORD ix 
 
 not only to labor and its sympathizers but to the entire 
 community. 
 
 I must take this opportunity to point out that the 
 hostility of the Bolshevists to the American Federation 
 of Labor is of the same degree of intensity and of the 
 same general character as the hostility of a large group 
 of reactionary employers a group to be found in all 
 countries, but at the present moment far more aggressive 
 and powerful in the United States than in any other 
 nation of the globe. So closely identical are the anti- 
 labor-union policies of the Bolshevists and Reactionaries 
 that a number of instances have already arisen of deliber- 
 ate co-operation to destroy organized labor. But even 
 when there is no definite alliance the similarity of the 
 purposes and methods of the two groups bring it about 
 that they spread an identical propaganda. The Reac- 
 tionary, therefore, does not disguise the delight with 
 which he reads of the Bolshevist attacks on organized 
 labor, nor do the Bolshevists disguise their joy at the 
 victories of Reaction. Nor is this the only way by which 
 Reaction aids Bolshevism ; in its refusal to grant reason- 
 *able economic concessions and to cede to reasonable de- 
 mands for political and legislative reforms, the Reaction- 
 aries inevitably drive the thoughtless and impatient into 
 the arms of Bolshevism. 
 
 I have been obliged to deal continually with Bolshev- 
 ism for the past four years. I have utilized in the 
 present volume parts of several recent articles from the 
 official organ of the American Federation of Labor, The 
 American Federationist, of which I am editor, as well as 
 certain material in the current report of the Executive
 
 x FOREWORD 
 
 Council of that organization. Nearly all of it, however, 
 is new. 
 
 Mr. William English Walling, who has collaborated 
 with me, is the author of a number of books dealing with 
 the international labor movement and of two volumes on 
 Russia. He spent several years in that country at the 
 time of the origin of the Bolshevist party and has fol- 
 lowed it closely for the past fifteen years. His knowledge 
 of Russia and the international labor movement, to 
 which I can testify, has proved most helpful. 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPEES.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 America and the Soviets 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE POSITION OP AMERICAN LABOR SECRETABT 
 COLBY'S NOTE OF AUGUST 10, 1921 THE BOL- 
 SHEVIST ANSWER SECRETARY HUGHES' NOTE OF 
 MARCH 25, 1921 REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA 
 BY SOVIET TRADE COMMISSIONERS TEST OF 
 HUGHES' NOTE SECRETARY HUGHES' REPLY TO 
 PRESIDENT GOMPERS SECRETARY W. B. WILSON'S 
 DECISION Re THE DEPORTATION OF "AMBASSADOR" 
 MARTENS SECRETARY HOOVER'S VIEWS THE 
 HEARST NEWSPAPERS' INTERPRETATION OTHER 
 NEWSPAPERS LENIN AS A " CONSERVATIVE " 
 THE OFFICIAL SOVIET REPLY TO THE HUGHES 
 NOTE LENIN'S SUPPOSED " COMPROMISES " AND 
 " REFORMS " " STATE CAPITALISM " ADOPTED 
 THE AVALANCHE OF ADVERSE EVIDENCE-THE PRO- 
 BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA CONTINUES UNABATED 
 SOCIALIST, LABOR AND " LIBERAL " PRO-BOL- 
 SHEVISTS , 1-19 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Practical Foundation Mendacious Propaganda 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF PROPAGANDA ACCORDING TO THE 
 NINTH COMMUNIST CONGRESS LENIN PUBLICLY 
 ADVOCATESMENDACITY LENIN VlEWED AS A "MAD 
 DEMAGOGUE " LENIN PUBLICLY PLANS TO DE-
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 STROY THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY HlS CRUDE 
 FALSEHOODS ABOUT AMERICA, ENGLAND, FRANCE 
 AND JAPAN HE CLAIMS COMMUNISM AS THE 
 CENTRAL QUESTION OF CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN 
 POLITICS FANTASTIC PICTURES OF FOREIGN CON- 
 DITIONS PRESENTED TO SOVIET RUSSIA THE 
 BOLSHEVIST MONOPOLY OF PAPER AND PRINTED 
 MATTER CONTROLLING THE THOUGHT OF 100-, 
 000,000 PEOPLE 20-27 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Political Foundation War against Democracy 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AS A 
 REVOLT AGAINST DEMOCRACY ATTEMPTS TO IN- 
 TERPRET THE WORD " DEMOCRACY " FOR BOLSHE- 
 VIST PURPOSES THESE ATTEMPTS OPENLY 
 ABANDONED THE SOVIETS ALSO BECOME OBSO- 
 LETE LENIN SHOWS IT is NOT A LABOR STATE 
 THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY 
 OFFICIALLY PROCLAIMED COMPOSITION OF COM- 
 MUNIST PARTY THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION LAID 
 ASIDE WHO CONTROLS THE COMMUNIST PARTY? 
 COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP TO LAST TWENTY- 
 FIVE TO FIFTY YEARS THE COMMUNIST PARTY 
 A SECT WAGING WAR ON THE UNCONQUERED AND 
 UNCONVERTED 28-48 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Reign of Terror 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON'S SUCCESSFUL APPEAL TO THE 
 CIVILIZED NATIONS TO OUTLAW THE SOVIETS 
 TERRORISM GROWN WORSE EXTERMINATING
 
 CONTENTS riii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE MIDDLE CLASSES TROTZKY ON BREAKING 
 THE WlLL OF THE INTELLECTUALS RED TERROR 
 URGED BY LENIN AGAINST RECALCITRANT SOCIAL- 
 ISTS WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS OF HOSTAGES 
 OFFICIALLY ADMITTED MEMBERSHIP OF ALL NON- 
 BOLSHEVIST PARTIES A CRIME AGAINST THE SOVIET 
 STATE THE ALL-EMBRACING ACTIVITIES OF THE 
 EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION FOR ADMINISTERING 
 THE RED TERROR TERRORISM AGAINST AGRI- 
 CULTURAL REBELS TERROR AGAINST THE RED 
 ARMY? TERRORISM AGAINST LABOR AND TRADES 
 UNIONS THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION IN 
 ACTION AGAINST THE LEADERS OF THE AGRARIAN 
 PARTY THE RED TERROR THE MEASURE OF 
 DESPERATION OF A DWINDLING MINORITY 49-71 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Slavery and Compulsory Labor 
 
 SYNDICALISM ABANDONED THE CODE FOR SLAVE 
 LABOR MILITARIZATION OF LABOR FACTORY 
 DICTATORS LENIN DEFENDS INDUSTRIAL AUTOC- 
 RACY COMPULSORY LABOR THE FOUNDATION OF 
 THE SOVIET STRUCTURE (TROTZKY) LABOR 
 ARMIES COMPULSORY LABOR TO LAST A GEN- 
 ERATION COMPULSORY OVER-TIME COMMUNIST 
 LABOR ACCORDING TO LENIN AN AMERICAN 
 WITNESS DIFFICULTIES OF LABOR REVOLT 72-87 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Persecution of Organized Labor Trade Unions 
 
 FREE TRADE UNIONS ABOLISHED COMPULSORY OR 
 GOVERNMENTAL TRADE UNIONS FICTITIOUS 
 MEMBERSHIP THE TRADES UNIONS SUBORDI-
 
 xiv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 NATED TO THE COMMUNIST PAETT COLLAPSE 
 OF THE UNIONS ADMITTED BY TROTZKY THE 
 PRINTERS' UNION DESCRIBES BOLSHEVIST LABOR 
 UNION PRACTICES TROTZKT'S PLAN OF APPOINT- 
 ING TRADE UNION OFFICIALS LENIN vs. TROTZKY 
 THE REVOLT WITHIN THE UNIONS THE CHIEF 
 TERRORIST TAKES TROTZKY'S PLACE AS COM- 
 MISSARY OF TRANSPORT APPEAL OF THE PRINT- 
 ERS' UNION AGAINST THE COMMUNIST PARTY 88-103 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Oppression of the Agricultural Population 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION CONQUERED AND 
 SUBJECTED THE " CLASS WAR " CONTINUED 
 AGAINST THE AGRICULTURISTS (PEASANTS) THE 
 " DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT " AS THE 
 RULE OF AN INDUSTRIAL MINORITY OVER AN AGRI- 
 CULTURAL MAJORITY VILIFICATION OF THE AGRI- 
 CULTURAL POPULATION BY RUSSIAN BOLSHEVISTS 
 AND FOREIGN " LIBERALS " THE AGRICULTUR- 
 ISTS AS THE INTERNAL ENEMY LOOTING THE 
 COUNTRYSIDE THE WAR AGAINST THE VILLAGES 
 LENIN'S COVERING PHRASES THE GREAT " RE- 
 FORM " IN BOLSHEVIST AGRARIAN POLICY COM- 
 PULSORY CO-OPERATION THE " RETURN TO CAP- 
 ITALISM " IN AGRARIAN POLICY FOUNDATIONS 
 OF LENIN'S AGRARIAN POLICY 104-124 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Economic Collapse Fictitious Reforms 
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE DUE PARTLY TO BOLSHE- 
 VISM DISORGANIZATION ADMITTED AGRICULTUR-
 
 CONTENTS xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ISTS IN REVOLT BTTKEAUCRACY ABSORBING TOWN 
 POPULATION PERSECUTION OP BRAINS GOVERN- 
 MENT BY PAPER DECREES UNEXAMPLED INEF- 
 FICIENCY ACCELERATED DEGENERATION OF IN- 
 DUSTRY IMPOSSIBILITY OF SOCIAL AND INDUS- 
 TRIAL REFORM UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS 
 MYTHICAL REFORMS AN EXAMPLE, THE SUP- 
 POSED REGARD FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 
 DREADFUL CONDITION OF SO-CALLED " CHILDREN'S 
 HOMES " ATTEMPTED COMMUNIST MONOPOLY OF 
 SCHOOLS THE WAR OF THE COMMUNISTS AGAINST 
 THE SCHOOL TEACHERS LESS THAN ONE-FOURTH 
 OF THE CHILDREN IN SCHOOL LITERACY DESIRED 
 BY BOLSHEVISTS IN ORDER TO SPREAD EFFECT OF 
 PRINTED PROPAGANDA EDUCATION A BRANCH OF 
 PROPAGANDA SEPARATING CHILDREN FROM HOME 
 AND FAMILY CULTURE AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUC- 
 TION TO WAIT UNTIL DESTRUCTION OF EXISTING 
 SOCIETY is COMPLETED . . . 125-141 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 World Revolution The Attempt to Overthrow 
 Democratic Governments 
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION REMAINS THE CHIEF AIM WARS 
 AND REVOLUTIONS REGARDED AS INTERDEPENDENT 
 CIVIL WAK HELD AS THE NORMAL AFTERMATH 
 OF REVOLUTION MILITARY AID FOR FOREIGN 
 REVOLUTIONS REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS USE- 
 FUL TO THE WORLD REVOLUTIONARY CAUSE EVEN 
 WHEN THERE ARE NO REVOLUTIONS DENIAL OF 
 WORLD REVOLUTIONARY PLANS BY BOLSHEVIST 
 REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD BAD FAITH A FUNDA-
 
 xvi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MENTAL PRINCIPLE OP BOLSHEVISM WORLD REVO- 
 LUTION IN SOVIET AND COMMUNIST PARTY CON- 
 STITUTIONS REVOLUTION THE AIM OF THE COM- 
 MUNIST INTERNATIONALE SUCCESSES OP MOVE- 
 MENT IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE WORLD REVOLU- 
 TIONARY AIM NOT ABANDONED UTILITY OF 
 FOREIGN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS TO SOVIET 
 GOVERNMENT SUCCESS OF BOLSHEVIST PROPA- 
 GANDA AMONG FOREIGN MIDDLE-CLASSES LENIN'S 
 PRESENT THEORY ON WORLD REVOLUTION BOL- 
 SHEVIST HOPES FOR WORLD WARS THE HOPED- 
 FOR WAR BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA PRO-GER- 
 MAN TENDENCIES PLAN TO ATTACK THE ENTENTE 142-158 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 The Communist Internationale 
 
 RUSSIAN SOVIET CONTROL OF THE COMMUNIST (OR 
 THIRD) INTERNATIONALE RUSSIAN ORDERS TO 
 BRITISH COMMUNISTS SPLIT BETWEEN RUSSIAN 
 COMMUNISTS AND OTHER EXTREME REVOLUTION- 
 ISTS RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY CHAUVINISM 
 WAR ON AMERICAN TRADE UNIONS COMMUNIST 
 SUBSIDIES FOR FOREIGN LABOR PUBLICATIONS 
 How SOVIET PROPAGANDA FORCED THE BRITISH 
 TRADE TREATY 159-168 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 The Red Labor Union Internationale 
 
 LENIN RECOGNIZES THE TRADE UNIONS AS THE MAIN 
 ENEMY BOLSHEVIST ATTACK ON THE REVOLU- 
 TIONARY AND PRO-SOVIET INTERNATIONAL FEDER-
 
 CONTENTS xvii 
 
 PAQB 
 
 ATION OF TRADE UNIONS ORGANIZATION OP THE 
 RED LABOR UNION INTERNATIONALE MEMBER- 
 SHIP OF THE NEW BODY STRENGTH OF RED UNION 
 MOVEMENT IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE-T-STATE 
 SOCIALIST TENDENCY OF RUSSIAN EXTREMISTS vs. 
 SYNDICALIST TENDENCY OF NON-RUSSIANS ECO- 
 NOMIC ORGANIZATION (THE UNIONS) SUBORDINATED 
 TO POLITICAL (THE COMMUNIST PARTY) Losov- 
 SKY, SOVIET LABOR UNION AUTHORITY, ACKNOWL- 
 EDGES SPLIT WITH REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISTS 
 ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA COUNTER-ATTACK BY 
 THE SOCIALIST (OR SECOND) INTERNATIONALE 169-187 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 European Labor Disillusioned 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY EUROPEAN LABOR DELEGATIONS TO 
 SOVIET RUSSIA REPORT AGAINST BOLSHEVISM 
 THE ULTIMATUM OF TWENTY-ONE POINTS SENT TO 
 THE SOCIALIST AND LABOR PARTIES OF THE WORLD 
 EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS FAVOR ENTENTE MILI- 
 TARY ACTION IN GEORGIA AGAINST THE SOVIETS 
 THE FRENCH LABOR UNIONS REPUDIATE Moscow 
 ADVERSE REPORT OF SPANISH SOCIALIST DELE- 
 GATE COUNTER-ATTACK OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
 FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS SOVIET REPLY TO 
 THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY THE VOICE OF THE 
 RUSSIAN PEOPLE THE INDICTMENT BY THE Rus- 
 BIAN AGRARIANS (THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY 
 PARTY) THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 
 PROTESTS AGAINST PRO-SOVIET ATTITUDE OF THE 
 WORLD'S SOCIALISTS . . . 188-202
 
 xviii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 The Camouflaged Trade Agitation 
 
 PAGE 
 
 De Facto RECOGNITION OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT 
 THE PRIME OBJECT OP THE AGITATION FOR TRADE 
 TREATIES THE CLAIM THAT THESE TREATIES 
 MEAN THE ABANDONMENT OF COMMUNISM 
 THE SOVIETS REGARD THE TREATIES AS A VICTORY 
 FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM CONTINUED 
 COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA IN GREAT BRITAIN IN 
 SPITE OF TREATY TRADE TREATIES A PART OF 
 THE BOLSHEVISTS' REVOLUTIONARY TACTICS THE 
 BOLSHEVISTS Avow THEIR PURPOSES IN GRANTING 
 COMMERCIAL CONCESSIONS COMMUNISTS NOT 
 ABANDONING COMMUNISM THE TREATIES RE- 
 GARDED AS MERE ARMED TRUCES PRESIDENT 
 GOMPERS' LETTER ON THE SOVIET TRADE AGITA- 
 TION SECRETARY HUGHES' REPLY THE SOVIETS 
 TWICE REFUSE INTERNATIONAL AID FOR THE SUF- 
 FERING RUSSIAN PEOPLE THE OBJECTS OF THE 
 BRITISH TREATY AMERICA FREE FROM THESE 
 OBJECTIVES THE PRO-SOVIET AGITATION OF 
 PSEUDO LIBERALS SUFFICIENT INFORMATION 
 Now AT HAND 203-227 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 American Labor and Russia 
 
 CABLEGRAMS PRESIDENT GOMPERS TO THE PRESIDENT 
 OP THE WORKMEN'S .VND SOLDIERS' 
 
 COUNCIL, APRIL 2, 1917 228-229 
 
 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN 
 FEDERATION OF LABOR TO THE PRESI-
 
 CONTENTS xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DENT OP THE WORKMEN'S AND SOLr 
 
 DIERS' COUNCIL, APRIL 23, 1917 229-230 
 
 PRESIDENT GOMPERS TO THE COUNCIL 
 OF WORKMEN AND SOLDIERS, MAT 6, 
 1917 230-232 
 
 PRESIDENT GOMPERS TO KERENSKY, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 17, 1917 233-234 
 
 PRESIDENT GOMPERS, FOR THE ALLI- 
 ANCE FOR LABOR AND DEMOCRACY, TO 
 THE ALL-RUSSIAN SOVIET, MARCH 12, 
 1918 234 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 The Soviet Administration of Justice 235-236 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 The Turko-Bolshevist Attack on the Labor 
 
 Government of Georgia 237-239 
 
 APPENDIX IV 
 
 * 
 
 Lenin's "Conversion" 
 
 THE WORLD REVOLUTION STILL THE MAIN CONSIDERA- 
 TION LENIN SAYS THAT PRIVATE PROPERTY IN 
 LAND AND FREE TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL PROD- 
 UCTS ARE NOT TO BE RESTORED GOVERNING OF 
 
 THE PEASANTS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT TO CON- 
 TINUE FOR GENERATIONS LOCAL AND NARROWLY 
 RESTRICTED PRIVATE TRADING ESTABLISHED 
 THE AIM REMAINS TO MAINTAIN THE POWER OF 
 THE COMMUNIST PARTY . . . 240-244
 
 xx JCONTENTS 
 
 APPENDIX V 
 Can the Soviets be Saved by Capital? 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BRITISH WHITE PAPER SUMMARIZED No POSSI- 
 BILITY THAT RUSSIA WILL BE ABLE TO RELIEVE 
 EUROPE FOR A CONSIDERABLE PERIOD RUSSIA 
 DEPENDENT ON FOREIGN CAPITAL (OR CREDIT) 
 CAN FOREIGN CAPITAL SAVE RUSSIA IF THE SOVIET 
 POWER REMAINS? THE ECONOMIC FAILURE or 
 BOLSHEVISM INVERTED INTERPRETATIONS OF THE 
 WHITE PAPER.. . 245-253
 
 OUT OF THEIR OWF MOUTHS
 
 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 
 
 THE American Federation of Labor, at its 1920 con- 
 vention, resolved: 
 
 That the American Federation of Labor is not justi- 
 fied in taking any action which could be construed as 
 an assistance to or approval of, the Soviet Government 
 of Russia as long as that government is based upon 
 authority which has not been vested in it by a popular 
 representative national assemblage of the Russian peo- 
 ple ; or so long as it endeavors to create revolutions in 
 the well-established, civilized nations of the world; or 
 so long as it advocates and applies the militarization 
 of labor and prevents the organizing and functioning 
 of trade unions and the maintenance of a free press 
 and free public assemblage. 
 
 This resolution contains a very conservative state- 
 ment of the anti-labor and anti-democratic nature of 
 the Soviet dictatorship and the reasons of organized 
 labor for repudiating it. 
 
 In response to the overwhelming pressure of public 
 opinion, including not only organized labor but all ele- 
 mjents of the American people, Secretary of State Colby,
 
 2 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 on the tenth of August, 1920, a few weeks following 
 the convention, addressed a powerful note to the Italian 
 Government giving reasons why America refused to 
 have anything to do with the Soviet dictatorship. The 
 chief reasons given by Mr. Colby were (1) the unrepre- 
 sentative and anti-democratic character of the so-called 
 Soviet Government and (2) the utter unreliability it 
 had shown in all international relations, including state- 
 ments by its leading officials that they did not intend 
 to be bound by their own pledges to "bourgeois" gov- 
 ernments. 
 
 The Bolshevists' answer was to increase their public 
 and underground labors in this country. In the United 
 States as in all European countries, as well as China, 
 Persia, India, Turkey, Mexico and even in South 
 America, Soviet agents have been repeatedly caught 
 carrying vast sums for the purposes of propaganda. 
 While Russian agriculture is degenerating for the lack 
 of plows and even of sickles and scythes; while the 
 laboring class is starving from the degeneration of 
 agriculture ; while the railroads are falling to pieces and 
 three-fourths of the children are out of school, the Soviet 
 finds ample means for vast expenditures not only for 
 propaganda but for military attacks, such as those re- 
 cently made on the democratic labor government of 
 Georgia and her neighbors. This money has been taken 
 from Russia's dwindling gold reserve and the few other 
 mobile assets such as jewels, art treasures, platinum 
 and foreign securities, which might have been used as 
 a basis for restoring her credit and setting up a cur- 
 rency system at such time as the government became 
 civilized.
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 3 
 
 Democratic governments, no matter how large and 
 powerful, have no propaganda funds. Hence the un- 
 deniable and considerable effect of the Bolshevist agita 
 tion in America as well as other countries. Though 
 the evidence coming from Russia, consisting in large 
 part of Bolshevist documents, is vast and overwhelm- 
 ing, it has secured less circulation than the audacious 
 falsifications and inventions of the Bolshevists and their 
 sympathizers disproven one day only to be repeated 
 in some new form on the next. 
 
 The Soviets and their supporters threw themselves 
 into the Presidential election campaign last autumn 
 with the avowed hope of securing recognition from 
 the present Executive and State Departments of the 
 United States. But in spite of the huge bulk of the 
 pro-Bolshevist matter put out by thousands of pub- 
 lications, the practical results achieved were equal to 
 zero. The great majority of American people read it, 
 pondered upon it and threw it into the waste basket. 
 
 The new administration did not have to hesitate a 
 moment in deciding what to do. President Harding 
 and Secretary Hughes had not been in office more 
 than a few days when, Great Britain having signed 
 her trade agreement (on March 18th), the Soviets 
 immediately played their long expected card in the 
 shape of a note asking that the United States Gov- 
 ernment officially receive a so-called trade delega- 
 tion from Soviet Russia. Doubtless one consideration 
 affecting the new administration in its prompt reply 
 was the fact that all such trade delegations throughout 
 Europe had been employed by the Soviets for the pur- 
 pose of revolutionary agitation to overthrow the gov-
 
 4 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 ernments to which they were accredited. The offer 
 of three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to 
 the London Daily Herald, the willingness of the Lans- 
 hury semi-Communist organ to accept it a publication 
 which, unfortunately, is also the chief organ of the 
 British Labor Party and the proof given by the British 
 Government that Kameneff, the Soviet "trade" emis- 
 sary, was privy to the offer, are fresh in the mind of 
 the American public. Similar instances occurred in 
 Germany, Italy, Switzerland and other countries. 
 
 But the grounds given by Secretary Hughes, in his 
 Note refusing to consider the Soviet overture, were 
 different. Without either re-affirming or amending the 
 conclusive arguments offered by President Wilson and 
 Secretary Colby, without considering the non-repre- 
 sentative character of the Kussian Government or its 
 instability, Secretary Hughes brought forward addi- 
 tional considerations which have met the almost unan- 
 imous approval of the common sense of the American 
 people : 
 
 Text of Hughes 's Statement Rejecting Soviet's Pro- 
 posal for a Governmental Trade Agreement 
 
 (March 25th, 1921) 
 
 The Government of the United States views with deep 
 sympathy and grave concern the plight of the people 
 of Russia and desires to aid by every appropriate means 
 in promoting proper opportunities through which com- 
 merce can be established upon a sound basis. It is mani- 
 fest to this Government that in existing circumstances 
 there is no assurance for the development of trade, as 
 the supplies which Russia might now be able to obtain 
 would be wholly inadequate to meet her needs, and no
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 5 
 
 lasting good can result so long as the present causes of 
 progressive impoverishment continue to operate. It is 
 only in the productivity of Russia that there is any hope 
 for the Russian people and it is idle to expect resump- 
 tion of trade until the economic bases of production are 
 securely established. Production is conditioned upon 
 the safety of life, the recognition by firm guarantees of 
 private property, the sanctity of contract and the rights 
 of free labor. 
 
 If fundamental changes are contemplated, involving 
 due regard for the protection of persons and property 
 and the establishment of conditions essential to the main- 
 tenance of commerce, this Government will be glad to 
 have convincing evidence of the consummation of such 
 changes, and until this evidence is supplied this Govern- 
 ment is unable to perceive that there is any proper basis 
 for considering trade relations. 
 
 A few words have been italicized as indicating either 
 features of the Note that were relatively unnoticed or 
 features of especial importance in connection with the 
 data presented in the present volume. 
 
 Disturbed by the vast pro-Soviet agitation, falsely 
 labeled " campaign for the restoration of trade rela- 
 tions" which was being carried on in the labor unions 
 in spite of Secretary Hughes' Note President Gom- 
 pers then addressed a letter to the Secretary asking 
 for full information as to the facts in the case. The 
 Secretary's answer to this letter, together v/ith his 
 Note written a few weeks earlier, when taken together, 
 give a clear and positive statement of the American 
 policy. (We quote the two letters at length in a later 
 chapter in discussing the Russian trade question.) In 
 his letter to President Gompers, Mr. Hughes points out 
 the impossibility of aiding the Russian people or of
 
 6 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 improving American trade with that country or of 
 restoring Eussian credit "so long as the present 
 political and economic system continues." Issued at 
 that moment, April 18th, 1921, it had a special signifi- 
 cance. It indicated that the American Government 
 attached no importance whatever to the so-called 
 "reforms" and the pretended abandonment of com- 
 munism by the Soviet Government .early in March. For 
 not only the pro-Bolshevists but numerous groups of 
 greedy capitalists and their newspapers as well as a 
 number of well meaning but uninformed or superficial 
 editors and correspondents had swallowed Lenin's 
 bait, that is, his pretense that he had reformed and 
 had compromised fundamentally with "capitalism." 
 
 In this letter Mr. Hughes did not limit himself to 
 pointing out the incapacity of the Soviet Government 
 to organize production. Even should it be able to do 
 so successfully, he pointed out that "the attitude and 
 action of the present authorities of Eussia have tended 
 to undermine its political and economic relations with 
 other countries." 
 
 In the Note above quoted, in refusing to receive a 
 Soviet trade delegation Mr. Hughes had stated that 
 among the fundamental institutions of modern civiliza- 
 tion which were indispensable if Eussian production 
 was to be restored was the establishment of "freedom 
 of labor." Evidence given below will show that the 
 enslavement of labor is indeed the chief underlying 
 cause of the entire collapse of the Bolshevist system 
 and of the frightful suffering it has inflicted not only 
 upon labor but upon the entire population of the 
 country.
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 7 
 
 America, then, has fully endorsed the stand of the 
 American Federation of Labor at its 1920 convention. 
 As further evidence of the complete harmony between 
 American labor and the rest of the nation upon this 
 subject, we may point to the able statement of that 
 eminent representative of labor, former Secretary of 
 Labor, William B. Wilson, in his decisions in the Mar- 
 tens deportation case. The decision itself is a highly 
 important state document. Its principles were more 
 briefly summarized in a letter written by Mr. Wilson 
 a few weeks later (January 3, 1921) to Charles Recht, 
 then Counsellor of the Soviet "Embassy" and now in 
 charge of Soviet affairs in this country. In this letter 
 Secretary Wilson, basing his statements upon a vast 
 number of documents in his hands and upon the testi- 
 mony of Mr. Martens, the Soviet "Ambassador," 
 reached the following conclusions as to the character 
 of the Soviet regime and the American attitude to- 
 wards it: 
 
 In the evidence presented to me in the Martens case 
 it was clearly shown that a group of men calling them- 
 selves Communists had set up a military dictatorship 
 in Russia; that they had camouflaged it under the 
 name of a dictatorship of the proletariat, seeking to 
 convey the impression that it was a dictatorship by 
 the proletariat ; that it had by force of arms introduced 
 compulsory labor, in other words, slavery, into Russia ; 
 that the proletariat were compelled to work at occupa- 
 tions selected for them at meager wages and long hours 
 imposed under the direction of the military masters. 
 Naturally the sympathy of the Administration and of 
 the American people, including the workers, goes out 
 to the Russian people, under such circumstances, just
 
 8 OUT OF THEIR: OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Jis our sympathies go out to the oppressed of all lands 
 no matter who or what the oppressor may be. ... 
 
 The evidence was cumulative and conclusive that the 
 military dictatorship of Russia, calling itself the Soviet 
 Government, was appropriating large sums of money 
 to stir up insurrection by force of arms against the 
 United States Government. It is a novel principle in 
 international law and one that is not likely to be gen- 
 erally accepted, that a newly established military dicta- 
 torship in one country may capitalize the traditional 
 friendship of another country for its people by making 
 a pretense of wanting to establish friendly relations 
 with the government at the same time that it is seeking 
 to destroy it by stirring up insurrection. 
 
 Finally we may quote a few words from Mr. Herbert 
 Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, the world's highest 
 authority on European relief. Mr. Hoover believes that 
 nothing of any consequence can be done for the Rus- 
 sian people as long as the Bolshevists remain on their 
 necks and these are the reasons he gives for this posi- 
 tion (in his letter of March 21st, 1921) : 
 
 So long as Russia is controlled by the Bolsheviki. . . . 
 the question of trade is far more political than economic. 
 
 There are no export commodities in Russia worth con- 
 sideration except gold, platinum and jewelry in the 
 hands of the Bolsheviki Government. The people are 
 starving, cold, under-clad. If they had any consumable 
 commodities they would have used them long since. 
 
 There has been no prohibition on trade. The real 
 blockade has been the failure of the Russians to produce 
 anything to trade with. 
 
 Trading for this parcel of gold would not effect this 
 remedy nor would the goods obtained by the Bolsheviki 
 restore their production. That requires the abandon- 
 ment of the present economic system.
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 9 
 
 On the day of the issuance of Mr. Hughes' Note 
 (March 25th) Mr. Hoover further declared: 
 
 Secretary Hughes 's statement on the Russian trade 
 situation this afternoon shows the complete agreement 
 in the views of the whole administration. 
 
 The first thing to be determined about Russia is if, 
 and when, they change their economic system. (Our 
 italics.) 
 
 If they so change its basis as to accept the right of 
 private property, freedom of labor, provide for the safety 
 of human life, there is hope of their recovery from 
 the miseries of famine. There is hope also of a slow 
 recovery in production and the upbuilding of trade. 
 
 Nothing is more important to the whole commercial 
 world than the recovery of productivity in Russia. 
 
 These very explicit and positive statements of Messrs. 
 Hughes and Hoover might well have disposed of the 
 question of the American Government's position. But 
 so powerful is the pro-Soviet propaganda and so strong 
 is the purpose to befriend the Bolshevist Government 
 at any cost that a widespread effort was made to explain 
 away the Note as being friendly to the Soviets! The 
 Hearst papers and their Universal Press Service boldly 
 claimed that "not one word of the statement was directed 
 at the Russian Government, and no objection to the 
 form of the Soviet Government was voiced" ( They 
 then declared, on the very day of the note, that "it is 
 recognized that some of the guarantees demanded by 
 this Government as a preliminary to the establishment 
 of trade relations already have been announced by 
 Lenin. ' '
 
 10 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The newspapers mentioned are ardent defenders of 
 the Soviets, But certain more conservative organs, 
 wholly opposed to Bolshevism, also found some way 
 to take a position favorable to the Soviets. One of 
 the leading Democratic newspapers of the country, 
 reversing the view expressed by the above mentioned 
 journals that the Hughes Note was to be praised 
 because it was friendly to the Soviets, argued that it was 
 to be blamed because it was too hostile. Wilson and 
 Colby were hostile enough ; Harding and Hughes go too 
 far when they are more hostile still: 
 
 Insisting that "production is conditioned upon the 
 safety of life, the recognition by firm guarantees of 
 private property, the sanctity of contract and the rights 
 of free labor," they, Harding and Hughes, demand in 
 effect an economic revolution in Russia, and it is a 
 demand that cannot very well be substantiated as a basis 
 for commerce. 
 
 This conservative paper then proceeded to endorse 
 the entire argument upon which the pro-Bolshevists 
 now stake their agitation: Lenin, it appears, has sur- 
 rendered to "peasant individualism." "The Com- 
 munist autocracy has had to yield to rural public 
 opinion backed by the physical power of the peasant. 
 . . . What was called in the beginning a necessary but 
 temporary dictatorship of the proletariat ran its course 
 much more quickly than in the French Revolution." 
 What truth there is in all this if any we shall show 
 in later chapters. Undoubtedly something of this kind 
 may happen if the Soviets are not further bolstered 
 up by political recognition and financial aid from
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 11 
 
 other countries. But nothing could delay the desirable 
 event more effectively than to assume it has occurred 
 when it has not. This newspaper continues : 
 
 Now Lenin "solves" the peasant problem, as he is 
 said to be solving the problem of capitalism by giving 
 it up. In what is incomparably the largest field of 
 Russian industry, he drops Communism. 
 
 Again the time element is all important. If it is 
 wholly misleading to assume a momentous event that 
 has not yet taken place, it is equally misleading to 
 date in the present an event that has occurred long 
 ago and so to attribute it to present causes in this 
 instance the yielding of the Soviets to the pressure 
 of the peasants or of foreign capitalists. We shall 
 show that the impossibility of applying communism 
 to agriculture, far from being in Bolshevist minds (as 
 it would be in the minds of the rest of humanity) an 
 argument for abolishing the communist dictatorship, is 
 precisely the one reason they have given from the first 
 for establishing that dictatorship and the one reason 
 why they urge that in the face of rising peasant dis- 
 content it is more than ever essential for them to 
 maintain it now. 
 
 Such views as those just quoted are not confined 
 to the conservative organs of the opposition party. One 
 of the leading Republican papers, which had favored 
 the trade agreement, continued to insist editorially that 
 the question was whether "Lenin and Trotzky mean 
 it when they say Bolshevism is dead" though this 
 f imaginary statement is the very reverse of everything
 
 12 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Trotzky and Lenin have been saying. The Washington 
 correspondent of another leading Republican organ 
 declared that "the Russian Bolsheviki are ready to 
 abandon the last vestiges of their program and to 
 return to capitalism in industry as well as agriculture ' ' 
 a statement for which he could produce no substantia- 
 tion whatever from any quarter. 
 
 Several Republican and Democratic Senators were 
 quoted in the press to similar" effect. One well-known 
 Senator is reported as having said: 
 
 The danger that existed of political propaganda in- 
 spired and paid for by the Russian Government, ha3 
 practically disappeared. I think it may be said that the 
 Lenin-Trotzky Government has abandoned the effort to 
 convert the world and is modifying its own Government 
 into a much more conservative form than it started with. 
 
 The word "conservative" as well as the word 
 "moderate" is thus being freely applied to those ad- 
 vanced extremists and revolutionaries who are a shade 
 or two less red than others in a scale of violent revolu- 
 tion that now shows half a hundred varieties! The 
 statement here made that Lenin and Trotzky are aban- 
 doning their propaganda for world revolt, as we shall 
 show, is negatived by the entire structure and func- 
 tioning of the Communist-Soviet machine. In the mean- 
 while we may quote at this point as fairly conclusive 
 evidence the official Soviet wireless reply to the Hughes 
 Note, which contains also a smashing rejoinder to the 
 gratuitous newspaper assumptions we have referred to : 
 
 The American Consul in Reval has given our pleni- 
 potentiary representative the reply sent by his Govern-
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 13 
 
 ment to the last communication of the All-Russian 
 Central Executive Committee. The Note of the Ameri- 
 can Government points out that trade between Russia 
 and America can only be resumed when the former 
 recognizes private property, guarantees "free labor" 
 and personal inviolability and has a market large 
 enough for the export of stores of raw material. At 
 the same time the American press states that hopes 
 of trade with Russia are not lost, as Lenin will rapidly 
 change from Communism to capitalism and all the hopes 
 of the Americans will speedily be brought about by the 
 Bolsheviks themselves. The shortsightedness of the 
 tools of world capital is extraordinary. . . . 
 
 The hopes of world capital in the fall of Communism 
 have not been fulfilled. And now that we have reverted 
 to peaceful reconstruction and are introducing a prac- 
 tical policy in order to alleviate conditions for the 
 peasants who have suffered from failure of the harvest, 
 they regard this as a sign that we are reverting from 
 Communism to capitalism. It goes without saying that 
 all the hopes of the capitalists are doomed to failure. 
 
 Later the official organ of the Moscow Government, 
 Izvestia, made still more clear the underlying idea of 
 all Bolshevistic diplomatic negotiations, namely that the 
 world of capitalistic governments is being forced to 
 recognize and to compromise with Communism as em- 
 bodied in the government of Soviet Russia. The mouth- 
 piece of the Soviets repudiates as pure nonsense the 
 supposition that they are surrendering any Communist 
 principles whatever. At the same time it may be noted 
 that the Soviets have reached a perfectly clear compre- 
 hension of the nature of the American reply even if a 
 number of American newspapers have attempted to dis- 
 guise it. The Izvestia declares:
 
 14 OUT OF THEIR OWN [MOUTHS 
 
 The essence of the Washington answer is that the re- 
 sumption of commerce with Russia will be possible only 
 after we have returned to a bourgeois regime. This is 
 pure nonsense. The English bourgeoisie who have signed 
 a trade agreement with us did not consider this change 
 necessary. We did not propose to the Americans to 
 change their capitalistic r.egime for a communistic one. 
 
 But neither this provocative response nor anything 
 the Bolshevists can say or do no matter how aggres- 
 sively revolutionary can put a stop to the claims made 
 almost daily by their diplomatic agents, foreign propa- 
 gandists and "liberal" admirers that they have reformed. 
 Each minor change in their policy is held to demon- 
 state once more that now at last they have not only 
 thrown the entire Bolshevist system overboard but 
 have become "moderates" and adopted capitalism and 
 democracy. During recent months hardly a day has 
 passed without some Russian dispatch that the final step 
 has been taken and Communism abandoned. Here is 
 the crux of a typical dispatch (dated Riga, May 2, 
 1921) : 
 
 Following the restoration of free trade to coopera- 
 tive societies, the establishment of a system of taxation 
 in kind, and other recent concessions, the decision to 
 restore the coinage of silver marks, is according to 
 recent arrivals from Moscow, Premier Lenin's final 
 admission of the impossibility of the original Com- 
 munistic theories at this time. 
 
 Now the original theory of the Russian Communist or 
 Bolshevist Party was precisely that it is impossible to 
 apply Communism to the dominating industry of Russia
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 13 
 
 (agriculture) at the present time. This theory is not 
 only the one reason for the dictatorship of the pro- 
 letariat, as we have pointed out, but it is also the sole 
 reason for the establishment of the Soviet form of 
 government as opposed to the democratic Constitutional 
 Assembly. 
 
 The advocates of friendly relations with the Soviets, 
 approaching or actually amounting to their official 
 recognition, have not been satisfied with hailing every 
 petty advance of Bolshevism in the direction of more 
 practical methods of oppression as a final abandonment 
 of Communism. They have also seized upon every new 
 theoretical formulation by Lenin as a surrender to capi- 
 talism in spite of the fact that new encyclicals by the 
 Bolshevist high priest have been handed down to his 
 disciples several times each year ever since 1917. No 
 close or persistent student of these pronouncements has 
 missed or could miss the fact that all the essential foun- 
 dations of Soviet rule, as interpreted by Lenin, remain 
 now what they were in 1917. But journalists and others 
 who are either totally ignorant of the Soviet leader's 
 thought or know it only at second hand easily find in 
 each new formulation phrases with which they are un- 
 familiar or expressions they do not understand. This 
 is why it happens so frequently that some theory which 
 is the strongest possible reaffirmation of Bolshevism is 
 interpreted as a compromise or surrender. 
 
 An excellent illustration is the long article in the 
 Pravda of May 3d, in which Lenin explains to his fol- 
 lowers the theoretical foundation of those widely dis- 
 cussed tactical changes made by the Bolshevists for the 
 purpose of strengthening their despotic power at the
 
 16 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 time of the L/ommunist Party Congress held in March, 
 1921. 
 
 Lenin says in this article that it is nonsense to speak 
 of these changes as "a renunciation of the proletarian 
 dictatorship" and proves his point. But correspondents 
 continue to insist upon the contrary interpretation, 
 caught by Lenin's use of the expression "state capital- 
 ism" as applied to the present Soviet policy. Now mod- 
 erate Socialists have always referred to this intermedi- 
 ate phase between capitalism and socialism by the apolo- 
 getic term "state socialism," while ultra-revolutionists 
 have known this identical thing under the derisive term 
 "state-capitalism." To the latter this expression is 
 derogatory, though non-socialists take it to represent a 
 policy more friendly to capitalism, more reasonable than 
 "state socialism," and a totally different thing. To 
 every Bolshevist the expression, "state capitalism," 
 means that the present policy, revolutionary and ex- 
 treme as it may still seem to the rest of the world, is 
 but the merest beginning of the thoroughgoing commu- 
 nism they have in view and is introduced solely as a 
 means to further steps in the communist direction. Yet 
 Lenin's clear statement on this point is interpreted by 
 certain correspondents as a concession to capitalism. 
 
 Lenin's article above referred to is quoted by Michael 
 Farbman in the New York World as follows: 
 
 "The way to State-socialism," he says, "lies through 
 state capitalism. (German state capitalism.) We are 
 unable and long will be unable to supply the peasants 
 with all they need. This will be possible only after 
 electrification of the whole country ( !) has been accom- 
 plished.
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 17 
 
 "At the present stage we must choose from two alter- 
 natives. Either we must prohibit every kind of private 
 exchange of goods, otherwise capitalism. Such a policy 
 is idiotic and would mean suicide for the party attempt- 
 ing to introduce it, for such policy is economically im- 
 possible. The other alternative is to aid the development 
 of capitalism in Russia, while we are trying to transform 
 it into state capitalism. This is economically possible 
 and does not contradict the proletarian dictatorship. On 
 the contrary state capitalism is one stage in the advance 
 of free capitalism." 
 
 The pessimism prevailing in Communist circles Lenine 
 explains by the mistake in comparing how much state 
 capitalism is behind Socialism. One should compare how 
 much state capitalism is in advance of petty bourgeois 
 economy. "Only then," concludes the dictator, "will 
 we see how great the progress is we have made. The 
 chief problem now is to find the proper methods of how 
 to turn the inevitable growth of capitalism in Russia into 
 the form of state capitalism now and assist in securing 
 speedy conversion of state capitalism into Socialism." 
 
 Another passage from the same speech (taken from 
 the Bolshevist organ, Pravda, and reproduced in the 
 German Socialist Press) explains even more clearly 
 Lenin's motive in advocating the policy of state capital- 
 ism. As Lenin said, "the Communists did not need to 
 fear the development of state capitalism as they can fix 
 limits for it to suit themselves. Capitalism under the 
 control of a state in which the proletariat held all the 
 power in its hands, was not contradictory to the ideas 
 of Communism." 
 
 Changes are taking place in Soviet Russia. But 
 what is the nature of these changes ? That is the ques- 
 tion. It cannot be answered either by the Bolshevists
 
 18 OUT OF THEimoWN MOUTHS 
 
 or by their friends and apologists. Only a careful 
 examination of their own publications can afford an 
 answer. Fortunately these are now at hand in abun- 
 dance. They bring the whole movement into the light, 
 and answer every reasonable question. 
 
 In addition to the vast accumulation of docu- 
 mentary evidence from Russia and the weighty de- 
 cisions of two American administrations, we have 
 had adverse comment on Soviet Russia from practi- 
 cally every labor delegation that has visited that 
 country in the last twelve months from Germany, 
 Italy, Sweden, Spain and other countries. Only the 
 British report was ambiguous on certain points, but 
 a large part of the delegation, including Turner, Shaw, 
 Mrs. Snowden, Dr. Guest and Bertrand Russell, who 
 accompanied the delegation, was overwhelmingly ad- 
 verseafter having seen the Bolshevist regime with 
 their own eyes. Influenced by the reports of Dittmann 
 and Crispien, both of them radical Socialists, the Ger- 
 man labor union movement is now lined up almost 
 solidly against the Soviets. 
 
 What has been the effect of this avalanche of evidence 
 and testimony on the pro-Bolshevist agitation in this 
 country? Practically none at all. In May, 1921, the 
 propaganda of falsification continues unabated. The 
 position of the writers and speakers who are active 
 in this campaign is similar to that of the American 
 Socialist Party, which still remains with one foot in 
 and one foot out of the Third Internationale. The 
 Executive Committee of that body reports that the 
 "Socialist Party of America has always given its un- 
 wavering support to the Soviet Government of Russia, ' '
 
 AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 19 
 
 while the resolution carried by the convention in Sep- 
 tember, 1920, and later by referendum reads in part 
 as follows: 
 
 Socialism is in complete control of the great country 
 of Russia. ... It should be the task of the Socialist 
 Internationale to aid our comrades in Russia to main- 
 tain and fortify their political control. 
 
 So also the pro-Bolshevist "liberals" in America, as 
 well as their counterparts in Europe, and all the Social- 
 ist parties belonging to the Second Internationale, 
 including the British Labor Party, have done every- 
 thing in their power to aid the Soviet Government and 
 recognize the Bolshevists either as "comrades" or 
 in the case of the so-called liberals as democrats de- 
 serving support. 
 
 The American Socialist Party refuses to accept the 
 principle of "the dictatorship of the Proletariat in the 
 form of Soviets." It also refuses to conduct a revolu- 
 tion through orders issued from Moscow, but it has 
 done and pledged itself to do everything in its power 
 to aid that regime in Russia and in so doing, it also 
 aids the Soviet Government and the Third Interna- 
 tionale in their agitation in all countries except the 
 United States. So also the European Socialists in many 
 countries of Europe are aiding the Soviet agitation in 
 all countries except their own. Not only this but these 
 same organizations, while refusing to accept Moscow 
 rule,, are supporting the Soviet agitation in their own 
 countries in many points.
 
 II 
 
 THE PRACTICAL FOUNDATION OF BOLSHEVISM 
 MENDACIOUS PROPAGANDA 
 
 THE Bolshevists have frequently declared that the 
 foundation of their whole movement is propaganda. 
 This, in itself, is an amazing confession, but more amaz- 
 in still is their frank avowal of the character of this 
 propaganda. The ninth Communist Congress (March- 
 April, 1920) says on this subject: 
 
 The first condition of the success of the Soviet Re- 
 public in all departments, including the economic, is 
 chiefly systematic printed agitation. 
 
 As to the nature of the propaganda, we have the 
 following historic utterance of the Bolshevist high 
 priest himself in regard to the methods to be used in 
 order to destroy the labor unions: 
 
 We must know how to apply at need, knavery, deceit, 
 illegal methods, hiding truth by silence, in order to 
 penetrate to the very heart of the trade unions, to 
 remain there and to accomplish there the Communist 
 task. Lenin, in "Radicalism, the Infantile Malady of 
 Communism!" 
 
 It must not be supposed for one moment that the 
 childlike stupidity involved in this public pronounce- 
 ment of the intent to deceive is exceptional for the 
 
 20
 
 FOUNDATIONS OF BOLSHEVISM 21 
 
 great Bolshevist "master mind." In his letter of last 
 November to British labor he shows the same mixture 
 of simplicity and arrogance. The substance of that 
 letter was summed up last November by the pro-Soviet 
 London Daily News as follows : 
 
 The true British Communist is told that it is his duty 
 to cooperate with Mr. Henderson, Mr. Snowden and 
 other degraded ' ' bourgeois, ' ' in order to return members 
 to Parliament pledged to destroy from within that 
 institution, and incidentally to expose and ruin Mr. 
 Henderson, Mr. Snowden and the colleagues who are 
 to assist unwittingly in the operation. And this is said 
 openly in the hearing of the intended victims and of the 
 millions who are yet unconverted to the Gospel of Com- 
 munist "hate." No one that we remember, except some 
 of the German war lords towards the end of the great 
 struggle, has ever thought aloud in public in this semi- 
 insane manner. The parallel is ominous. 
 
 This letter was such an exhibition of incredible 
 ignorance regarding Great Britain, combined with in- 
 capacity for the simplest logical reasoning, that even the 
 friendly British Labor Party lost its patience while The 
 Daily News, unable to restrain its wrath, thus character- 
 ized the Bolshevist "Czar": 
 
 Mad Kings, Tzars and Kaisers ruin, as a rule, only 
 themselves and their subjects; a mad demagogue pro- 
 vides every half-witted enemy of liberty with a moral 
 to his servile tale. . . . 
 
 Bolshevism has many enemies, but it has none so 
 formidable as its foremost figure. "We can imagine a 
 man thinking in the sort of way in which Lenin talks 
 to his British Communist "Comrades" in the extracts 
 from his new book printed elsewhere in our columns
 
 22 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 to-day. "We can imagine a man unfolding to like-minded 
 friends in the privacy of his own house some such plan 
 of campaign as he suggests to them. But that anyone 
 having conceived such a design should proceed to pro- 
 claim it from the housetops is a thing almost incredible. 
 It argues an arrogant contempt for all possible oppo- 
 sition which, to those who know the real strength of 
 ''Communism" in this country, seems not far removed 
 from insanity. 
 
 The workings of the mind of this half-crazed and 
 inflated fanatic are important not only as largely domi- 
 nating the movement but because they are typical of 
 his even less gifted Bolshevists. Perhaps the greatest 
 oratorical effort of his life was at the Second Congress 
 of the Communist Internationale held at Moscow in July, 
 1920. There, in rapid succession, he made a whole string 
 of utterly ignorant or consciously false statements about 
 Germany, America, Japan and France making these 
 propositions the very foundation of the world policy of 
 the Internationale and foreign policy of the Soviets. 
 Here are a few of his remarks : 
 
 You know that the Versailles Treaty forced Germany 
 and a whole series of conquered States, into conditions 
 of absolute impossibility of economic existence, into con- 
 ditions of complete absence of rights, of utter 'humilia- 
 tion. . . . America, which profited most of all from the 
 war, being converted into a rich country from a country 
 that had a mass of debts. . . . Japan, which profited much 
 by remaining outside the actual conflict, seizing the 
 Asiatic continent. . . . 
 
 France's assets are three and one-quarter billions, 
 while her liabilities are ten and a half; that is three 
 times more. . . . This is the country which has lived
 
 FOUNDATION OF BOLSHEVISM 23 
 
 as a progressive civilized country because its savings 
 (colonial thefts, called savings), made it possible for 
 her to lend billions to other countries, and particularly 
 to Russia. 
 
 No more false, boastful, or deluded utterance was ever 
 recorded from the lips of Kaiser or Czar than the fol- 
 lowing from Lenin's much advertised but little read 
 "moderate" speech at the Congress of the Russian Com- 
 munist Party in March, 1921 ; nor could any citation 
 better illustrate the great hallucination upon which all 
 present Bolshevist calculations are built: 
 
 Certainly the Communist International which at the 
 time of last year's Congress existed only in the form of 
 proclamations has now begun to act as an independent 
 body in every country, and as more than merely a van- 
 guard party. Communism has become the central ques- 
 tion of the whole labor movement. In Germany, France, 
 and Italy, the Communist International has become the 
 center not only of the labor movement, but of the whole 
 political life of the country. It was impossible to pick 
 up a German or a French newspaper last autumn with- 
 out seeing discussions on Moscow and the Bolsheviks, and 
 how the twenty-one conditions of entry into the Third 
 International had become the central question of the 
 political life of those countries. This is our gain of 
 which no one can deprive us. (Russian Press Review, 
 March 15th, 1921.) 
 
 The complete falsity of the entire Bolshevist propa- 
 ganda may be best understood by Americans from a 
 few quotations suggesting the picture that is presented 
 to the Russian people of America and of the rest of 
 the world. As the Bolshevists have a monopoly of 
 the press and even of the paper of the country, thus
 
 24 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 effectively precluding the expression of non-Bolshevist 
 opinion, they are able to a considerable degree to im- 
 press these pictures upon the minds of the Russian people 
 and to shape their attitude to America and other coun- 
 tries accordingly. According to Mrs. Snowden and 
 other recent visitors, the Russian people have been per- 
 suaded by such methods to believe that Bolshevism is 
 spreading all the world over and that many countries 
 are on the verge of Bolshevist revolutions. We read 
 frequently in the Bolshevist press also statements like 
 the following: "If we compare the conditions of life 
 in Russia with the conditions of life in the West, we 
 have to state that our situation is a brilliant one." 
 (From Boyevaya Pravda, May 19, 1920.) 
 
 Here are a few statements illustrating American 
 news as it appears in the Soviet wireless: 
 
 Russian workmen, emigrants who have just returned 
 from America and are now in Sormovo, state that the 
 Russians in America are suffering great hardships. 
 They experience there all the horrors of prison life. 
 Workmen are arrested for participation in party con- 
 ferences; torture is resorted to when they are being 
 cross-examined. Many unions are obliged to work in 
 secret. (From Moscow wireless, January 4, 1921.) 
 
 The workers say that the work of the American Bol- 
 shevik party is proceeding successfully and that in New 
 York alone there are 200,000 members in tlie party. 
 (From Moscow wireless message, via London, January 
 4, 1921.) 
 
 The American Government has asked Latvia to con- 
 sent to allow 100,000 Russians to proceed to Soviet 
 Russia through her territory. The American Govern- 
 ment intends to deport these Russians in the near 
 future. (From Moscow wireless, February 7, 1921.)
 
 FOUNDATION. OF BOLSHEVISM 25 
 
 The head of the All Russian Soviet of Trade Unions, 
 Tomsky, thus pictures the position of the President of 
 the American Federation of Labor: 
 
 Gompers, when he starts out for conferences, sur- 
 rounds himself with five experienced boxers. (From 
 Izvestia, October 19, 1920.) 
 
 The Soviet regime is keeping a number of Americans 
 as hostages in the hope that it will be able to use them 
 to compel recognition by the American Government 
 a method which undoubtedly had considerable effect 
 in Great Britain. Among these hostages is the well- 
 known Ked Cross worker, Kilpatrick. When first 
 captured by the famous Bolshevist cavalry General, 
 Budenny, Kilpatrick reported that the chief intel- 
 ligence officer insisted "that the American working 
 classes were starving and the whole country on the 
 verge of revolution." This was at the end of 1920! 
 Yet, the Russian intelligence officer could have reached 
 no other conclusion from the Bolshevist press. 
 
 If a government appeals to its own people largely 
 on the basis of such falsehoods, we can imagine how 
 much reliance is to be placed upon Soviet statements 
 about their own performances especially issued for con- 
 sumption abroad. 
 
 The character of the Soviet regime in Russia and 
 of the Communist Internationale based upon it can 
 be understood only if we grasp firmly and keep steadily 
 in mind the utter and wholesale mendacity of the Bol- 
 shevist propaganda. Practically every statement that 
 comes directly or indirectly from Bolshevist sources 
 is vitiated, while statements emanating from the pro-
 
 26 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Bolshevists who, in addition to being indoctrinated 
 with this Bolshevist contempt for truth are, almost with- 
 out exception, wofully ignorant of Russia, are often still 
 more fanciful. 
 
 It is the vast extent and persistence of this propa- 
 ganda smoke-screen that has obscured Soviet Russia 
 from our eyes, and not the lack of well authenticated 
 facts or any incomprehensible mystery in Soviet Russia 
 or in Bolshevism. 
 
 The enormous role played by mendacious propaganda 
 in the Bolshevist political system arises only in part from 
 the character of the propaganda and in part from the 
 monopoly they have established in the control of edu- 
 cation and the press (including the monopoly of paper) 
 together with their prohibition of free speech and assem- 
 blage for all opposition parties. 
 
 It may be doubted if any State Socialist writer has 
 hitherto even conceived an Utopian system under which 
 all printed matter whatever is controlled by the State. 
 Not only have the Communists set up such a State con- 
 trol but they have established at the same time a con- 
 trol over the state by the very small group which domi- 
 nates the Communist Party, as we show in following 
 chapters. We read in a recent despatch : 
 
 All payments for newspapers, books, magazines, 
 pamphlets and pictures is abolished in a decree of the 
 People's Commissaries. Printed matter may be distrib- 
 uted among organizations and institutions, but not sold 
 to the public. 
 
 In other words a small group has undertaken to estab- 
 lish a complete monopoly over the intellectual output of
 
 FOUNDATION OF BOLSHEVISM 27 
 
 the country. This group has practically attempted to 
 direct the entire intellectual intake of a hundred million 
 people! Now let us recall once more the character of 
 the Communist intellectual output as already sketched 
 and we can begin to realize how monstrous is the crime 
 that is being attempted against the soul and mind of the 
 Russian people. 
 
 But this is only one aspect though the most funda- 
 mental of Bolshevist rule. We shall now take up some 
 others.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION: WAR AGAINST 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 BOLSHEVISM arose as a repudiation of democracy, 
 when Lenin employed a company of armed sailors to 
 disperse the Constitutional Assembly which had been 
 deliberately and fairly elected by the entire Russian 
 people. The Bolshevists have never held one election 
 under universal suffrage in Russia since that day. Far 
 from apologizing, they have boasted of their action 
 in overthrowing the constituent assembly. Their print- 
 ing presses have been occupied not with apologies, but 
 with seeking plausible phrases with which to cover 
 their reactionary despotism, such as "dictatorship of 
 the proletariat," "Soviets," "the rule of the workmen 
 and peasants." 
 
 At first Lenin endeavored also to distort and twist 
 the word "democracy" to his purposes, but the Soviet 
 regime was steadily becoming more and more anti- 
 democratic and the effort was soon abandoned. It has 
 been widely claimed that at the Soviet Congress in 
 December, 1920, and in the Communist Party Congress 
 in March, 1921, the Bolshevists abandoned a large part 
 of their practices and doctrines, threw communism 
 overboard and adopted capitalism. The fact is that one 
 steady and ceaseless change in the Bolshevist position has 
 been to get farther and farther away from democracy 
 
 28
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 29 
 
 and nearer and nearer to the absolute dictatorship of 
 Lenin and those about him. 
 
 At the outset Lenin made a strained effort to claim 
 that the Bolshevist regime was democratic. In order 
 to do this he made use of the favorite Bolshevist propa- 
 ganda trick of employing a word to mean the very 
 opposite of what it does mean. Nevertheless at that 
 time he did wish the world to believe that the Bolshevists, 
 in some sense, represented the Russian people. 
 
 The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates con- 
 stitutes the form of government by the workers, and 
 represents the interest of all the poorest of our people, 
 of nine-tenths of the population, aiming to secure peace, 
 bread and liberty. . . . (Nicolai Lenin in a book entitled 
 "The Proletarian Revolution in Russia," edited by 
 Louis C. Fraina, pp. 24-25). 
 
 In the Die Kommunistische Internationale in 1919 
 Lenin similarly wrote: 
 
 So Soviet or proletarian democracy has its birthplace 
 in Russia. It represents another stage in evolution fol- 
 lowing upon the Paris Commune. . . . For the first time 
 in the history of the world a Soviet or proletarian 
 democracy has created a democracy of the masses of 
 the working people, of the laborers and the small 
 peasantry. 
 
 Never before in history has there been a government 
 truly representing the majority of the people and render- 
 ing effective the actual power of this majority except 
 the Soviet. 
 
 So anxious was the Bolshevist dictator to claim that 
 he had the support of the Russian people and so con-
 
 30 OUT OF- THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 fident was he of his capacity to win that support that 
 he even had the courage to make democracy fundamental 
 in the Communist doctrine as he formulated it at that 
 time. This may be seen in his report to the Communist 
 Congress in March, 1919 a report accepted, like all of 
 Lenin's, by the Congress. In this report, reproduced in 
 the Petrograd Pravda of March 8, 1919, we read: 
 
 That which definitely distinguishes a dictatorship of 
 the proletariat from a dictatorship of other classes, from 
 a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in all the civilized 
 capitalist countries, is that the dictatorship of the land- 
 lords and of the bourgeoisie was the forcible suppression 
 of the resistance of the overwhelming majority of the 
 population, namely, the toilers. On the other hand, the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat is the forcible suppression 
 of the resistance of the exploiters, that is, of an insignifi- 
 cant minority of the population of landlords and 
 capitalists. 
 
 It therefore follows that a dictatorship of the pro- 
 letariat must necessarily carry with it not only changes 
 in the form and institutions of democracy, speaking in 
 general terms, but specifically such a change as would 
 secure an extension such as has never been seen in the 
 history of the world of the actual use of democratism 
 by the toiling classes. 
 
 And in actual fact the form of dictatorship of the 
 proletariat which has already been worked out in prac- 
 tice, that is, the Soviet authority in Russia, the Rate 
 system in Germany, the shop stewards' committees, and 
 other similar Soviet institutions in other countries, all 
 represent and realize for the toiling classes, that is, for 
 the overwhelming majority of the population, this actual 
 possibility to use democratic rights and freedoms, which 
 possibility never existed, even approximately, in the very 
 best and most democratic bourgeois republics.
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 31 
 
 Of course, there was never any foundation in fact 
 for these statements any more than there is any truth 
 in most of the other assertions of this Communist Marx. 
 The Reign of Terror and the dictatorship of the Com- 
 munist Party held in Soviet Russia then as now. More- 
 over Lenin himself was forced to state repeatedly that 
 in using the word " democracy" he did not mean to 
 suggest anything at all similar to any democracy that 
 had ever existed anywhere in the world before, until, 
 finally, he was forced to give such strange interpreta- 
 tions to the word as to make it mean its very opposite. 
 
 On the 8th of April, 1920, he said at the Russian 
 Labor Union Congress that no state had shown such 
 a democratic spirit as Soviet Russia and proceeded to 
 show what he meant by democracy by demanding that 
 the policy be continued of "making the laboring masses 
 participate in politics under the direction of the Com- 
 munist Party." 
 
 During the course of 1920 the anti-democratic course 
 of the Soviet regime became more and more marked and 
 its support among the population became narrower and 
 narrower. In the opening speech of the Congress of 
 the Communist Internationale, Zinoviev declared: 
 
 The idea of democracy has faded away before our 
 very eyes. When the American bourgeoisie before the 
 eyes of the whole world suspended constitutional guaran- 
 tees, when this much-praised democracy violated all the 
 principles established by it by this it itself determined 
 its place. On this question there should not be two 
 opinions. In noting the victory over the II Interna- 
 tionale it is necessary to emphasize the much-debated 
 point, and finish once for all with democratic tendencies.
 
 32 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 A very clear statement of the steady intensification of 
 the war against democracy that has been going on cease- 
 lessly in Soviet Russia has been made by Isaac A. Hour- 
 wich, recently legal adviser for the Russian Soviet 
 Bureau in America: 
 
 "All movements heretofore have been movements of 
 minorities or in the interests of minorities. The pro- 
 letarian movement is an independent movement of the 
 enormous majority." From the Communist Manifesto 
 of Karl Marx and Frederick En gels. . . . 
 
 The Bolshevik revolution dealt a heavy blow to that 
 theory. In Russia the proletariat is only a minority 
 this fact is not disputed by either the Bolsheviki or 
 the anti-Bolsheviki, and it is this minority that seized 
 the political power and established a dictatorship of 
 the proletariat. . . . This is the essence of the dictator- 
 ship of the proletariat. 
 
 The Communist Parties of all countries and even the 
 Socialist Center [i.e., the Menshevists and other orthodox 
 Marxists] have accepted the new formula the dicta- 
 torship of the proletariat through the Soviets, and have 
 renounced "democracy" in the sense in which that 
 term had been understood in all socialist platforms 
 prior to the Bolshevik revolution. At times the old 
 word "democracy" is still used, but a new meaning 
 is read into it. In the discussion of the 21 points many 
 communist leaders have outspokenly declared against 
 democracy and in favor of dictatorship. 
 
 The truth is that experience has demonstrated to the 
 communists that even in the most highly developed 
 capitalistic countries (except, perhaps England) the 
 proletariat is as yet not the majority of the adult popu- 
 lation. Therefore, the proletariat is as yet power- 
 less to establish socialism through the machinery of 
 democracy. The proletariat is accordingly faced with 
 the alternative of postponing the establishment of
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 33 
 
 socialism until the course of capitalistic development 
 will raise it to a majority of the population or of seiz- 
 ing the powers of government by an uprising of an 
 armed minority, and establishing a dictatorship which 
 does not need the support of the majority of the voters. 
 
 This quotation is from the Socialist Review, April, 
 1921. 
 
 Indeed a thoroughly anti-democratic conception ruled 
 Soviet Eussia from the beginning. Without quoting 
 at length from the Soviet constitution on this point, 
 we can with equal effect and more brevity cite the fol- 
 lowing from a resolution of the Eighth Communist 
 Congress, held March 18-23, 1919: 
 
 The Russian Communist Party, developing the con- 
 crete aims of the dictatorship of the proletariat with 
 reference to Russia, the chief characteristic of which 
 is that the majority of the population consists of petty 
 bourgeoisie, defines these aims as follows: 
 
 The urban proletariat . . . played the part of leader 
 in the revolution. . . . Our Soviet constitution reflects 
 that in certain privileges it confers upon the industrial 
 proletariat in comparison with the more scattered 
 petty-bourgeois mass in the village [i.e. the bulk of 
 the agriculturists]. 
 
 By the spring of 1920 Lenin had already thrown over 
 the democratic idea, together with all hope of gaining 
 the support of the peasants within the next twenty-five 
 or fifty years, for he said at the Trade Union Congress 
 in April: 
 
 The peasantry remained, in their production, as 
 property owners and are creating new capitalistic rela- 
 tions. These are the fundamental traits of our economic
 
 34 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 situation, and hence originates the unwisdom of the 
 talk of equality, freedom and democracy, by those who 
 do not understand the actual situation. (From Soviet 
 Russia, December 25, 1920.) 
 
 So all the fraudulent pretenses of "democracy," 
 even in the most strained interpretation of the word, 
 have been abandoned. Let us now examine the pre- 
 tense that there has been instituted a government of 
 "Soviets." In Russian the word "Soviets" means 
 simply "councils." And so it is used, even in Bol- 
 shevist Russia, in senses that vary almost from day 
 to day. It is true they have a Soviet constitution but 
 it is subject to unlimited interpretation and adminis- 
 tration by the Communist Party who constructed it, 
 in the first place, for their own purposes. If, however, 
 we turn to the Soviet constitution, on the momentary 
 supposition that it means in practice what it says on 
 paper, we find it full of anti-democratic clauses. Even 
 in the very friendly report of the British Labor Party 
 it is pointed out that clause 23 of the constitution 
 reads : 
 
 In the general interest of the working-class, the Rus- 
 sian Soviet Republic deprives individuals and sections 
 of the community of any privileges which may be used 
 to the detriment of the Socialist Revolution. 
 
 The British Labor Party report also points out that 
 the peasants have only one-third of the vote per capita 
 of the town electors, that the system of voting is always 
 open, there being no secret ballot, and that the elections 
 are so indirect that the handful of Moscow Commissars
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 35 
 
 are in complete control, being only "theoretically" 
 responsible to the Soviets. 
 
 Just as they have abandoned the pretense of 
 democracy, so the Bolshevists have now given up the 
 pretense of a ' ' Soviet ' ' government, whatever that may 
 mean. Let us note the following from the proceedings 
 of the Communist Internationale, July, 1920. 
 
 "All the Russian delegates," says Comrade Trotsky, 
 "when they return from the Congress will have to 
 face a whole series of questions ; for example, the pro- 
 posal of the Polish Government to conclude peace. 
 Where shall we decide this question? In the trade 
 unions? Of course, not there. It is true, we have a 
 Soviet of People's Commissaries, but the Soviet of 
 People's Commissaries also requires political control 
 and definite political direction. We shall give it this 
 political direction on the basis of the work of the party 
 and the political control can be carried out only by 
 the Communist Party." 
 
 In spite of the wholly despotic nature of their rule, 
 the Bolshevists hold so-called Soviet elections and send 
 broadcast over the world accounts of electoral victories 
 as proof of the fact that they are a civilized and orderly 
 government with popular support. It may be doubted 
 if such "elections" have occurred in any country for a 
 century or more. An excellent account of the latest Bol- 
 shevist electoral victory was given in the German Social- 
 ist Press in April, 1920, by the foreign delegation of the 
 Socialist Democratic Labor Party of Russia. 
 
 The brilliant victory at elections to the Moscow Soviet 
 as announced by the Communists will probably be able 
 to deceive nobody either in Russia or abroad. After
 
 36 N OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 recent events in Russia the whole world knows what is 
 the true state of mind of the Russian masses and what 
 kind of electoral freedom exists in the free Socialistic 
 Soviet Republic of Russia. This freedom is as follows : 
 
 A complete suppression of all freedom of press and 
 assemblage for all inhabitants except Communists. 
 
 The absolute prohibition of all other parties to conduct 
 any kind of an electoral campaign. 
 
 The illegal Social Revolutionists are not permitted to 
 go to the polls at all, so that this strong party cannot 
 possess a single Soviet delegate (among tens of thou- 
 sands) in all Russia. 
 
 The Socialist Democratic party is formally legal but 
 in fact illegal since regularly before each election there 
 are mass arrests, the victims of which are only allowed 
 their liberty again after the elections. 
 
 Public voting by the reason of hands in the election 
 of all officials. 
 
 Election geometry as follows: of llOO delegates in 
 Moscow, 600 were assigned to the army, moreover 200 
 were appointed by the executive staffs of the red labor 
 unions. [We shall show below that these executives were 
 in turn generally appointed by the choice of the Com- 
 munist party.] 
 
 The above facts are taken from the official declaration 
 of the electoral regulations. 
 
 ,. In Bolshevist Russia, then, we do not have a democ- 
 racy or a Soviet regime but a so-called "proletarian 
 dictatorship." Is it a Labor State? Arguing against 
 Trotzky at a meeting called to discuss the trade unions 
 at the end of 1920, Lenin said: 
 
 If we in 1917 [before the Bolshevists seized power] 
 wrote about a Labor State that was quite clear. But 
 at present, if we say: ''Why and against whom is the 
 labor class to be protected, as there is no bourgeoisie,
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 37 
 
 as the state is a labor state?" we must say "not quite 
 a labor state." This is peculiar inasmuch as many of 
 Trotsky's mistakes are based upon this point. In fact 
 we have not a labor state, but a labor-peasant's state, 
 first of all. Many things may be explained on this 
 account. Already our party program shows that we 
 have a labor state with burocratic perversions. That 
 is the reality of the transitory period. Can you tell me 
 whether in such a burocratic state, etc. 
 
 Also at the meeting of the Congress of Soviets, as 
 reported in the Petrograd Pravda of December 23, 1920, 
 Lenin made it clear that he was aware that the non- 
 Communists the Communist Party including only 
 600,000 members did not support the leading policies 
 of his government: 
 
 Are the members of the trades unions and most of 
 the non-partisan elements convinced of the necessity 
 of our new methods, of our great tasks of economic 
 construction? Are they convinced of the necessity of 
 giving everything for war, of sacrificing everything for 
 a victory on the military front? 
 
 The answer is undoubtedly, No ! They are not suffi- 
 ciently convinced of that. 
 
 In Russia to-day we have neither a democracy, a 
 Soviet regime nor a Labor State, but the dictatorship 
 of the Communist Party. The only phrases by which 
 the Communists now insist in disguising their rule are 
 "the dictatorship of the proletariat" and the "Republic 
 of the Workmen and Peasants." The fact that they 
 continue to use these expressions while at the same 
 time they confess it is the Communist Party that 
 governs indicates the brazen deception that permeates 
 their entire propaganda.
 
 88 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The official confession that the Communist Party 
 rules may be seen in the resolution proposed by that 
 Party at the 1920 Congress of the Communist Inter- 
 nationale and accepted unanimously by that body. "We 
 quote only a few of the most important expressions from 
 this very interesting document. The meaning is so clear 
 that comments are not called for. 
 
 The Communist Party is a part of the working class, 
 precisely its most advanced, most conscious, and there- 
 fore most revolutionary part. The Communist Party 
 springs into being through a natural selection of the 
 best, the most conscious, the most self-sacrificing, and 
 far-seeing workmen. The Communist Party has no 
 interests different from the interests of the working 
 class. . . . 
 
 The Communist Party is that lever of political 
 organization by means of which the most advanced 
 part of the working class directs the mass of the 
 proletariat and semi-proletariat along the right road. 
 
 As long as the governmental authority has not been 
 conquered by the proletariat, as long as the proletariat 
 has not established its rule once for all and has not 
 guaranteed the working class from the possibility of 
 a bourgeois restoration, so long will the Communist 
 Party by right have in its organized ranks only the 
 minority of the workmen. Up to the time of the seizure 
 of governmental authority and during the period of 
 transition the Communist Party may, in favorable cir- 
 cumstances, exercise undivided ideological and political 
 influence upon all the proletarian and semi-proletarian 
 strata of a population, but it can not bring them to- 
 gether in its ranks in an organized manner. Only after 
 the proletarian dictatorship will have deprived the 
 bourgeois of such powerful weapons of effective in- 
 fluence as the press, the school, the parliament, the
 
 39 
 
 church, the administrative apparatus, etc., only after 
 the final defeat of the bourgeois social order will have 
 become evident for everybody, only then will all or 
 practically all the workmen begin to enter the ranks 
 of the Communist Party. . . . 
 
 In Germany the Eight Independents, whenever they 
 make their halfway steps, allege that they represent the 
 desires of the masses, not realizing that a party exists 
 precisely for the purpose of marching in front of the 
 mass and of showing the mass the road it is to follow. 
 
 The Proletarian Revolution, in Russia, has brought 
 to the foreground the basic form of labor dictatorship, 
 viz., the Soviet. In the very near future the following 
 division will establish itself: First, the party; second, 
 the Soviets ; and third, the productive unions. But the 
 work both in the Soviets and in the revolutionized 
 productive unions must be invariably and systematically 
 directed by the party of the proletariat, i.e., the Com- 
 munist Party. The organized vanguard of the labor 
 class, the Communist Party, serves equally the interests 
 of the economical, the political, and the cultural strug- 
 gle of the working class as a whole. The Communist 
 Party must be the soul of the productive unions, of 
 the Soviets of "Workmen's Deputies, and of all the other 
 forms of proletarian organization. 
 
 The appearance of the Soviets as the chief form of 
 the dictatorship of the proletariat furnished by the 
 history does not in any way diminish the directing role 
 of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution. 
 
 Again the monopoly of all governmental functions, 
 and of nearly all the most vital economic functions, by 
 the Communist Party was briefly stated by Lenin on 
 November 5th, 1920 (before the Political Education 
 Conference quoted by Soviet Russia, April 30th, 
 1921). In this speech Lenin referred to that party 
 as necessarily controlling "the mighty state apparatus"
 
 40 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 and as ' ' determining everything. ' ' His most significant 
 sentences were the following: 
 
 We must openly recognize the predominance of the 
 Communist Party in our policy. 
 
 The party may express the interests of its class more 
 or less, may pass through alterations of one kind or 
 another, but we do not yet know of a better form: 
 no other form has as yet been found in any country. 
 The entire juristic and practical constitution of the 
 Soviet Republic is built upon the fact that it is the 
 party that is improving and determining everything, 
 reconstructing everything according to a single prin- 
 ciple, in order that the Communist elements in close 
 contact with the proletariat may permeate it with their 
 spirit and liberate it from the heritage of capitalism, 
 which we are so ardently striving to overcome. 
 
 Every propagandist belongs to the party, which is 
 guiding and directing the entire state, the world struggle 
 of Soviet Russia against capitalism. This propagandist 
 is a representative of the fighting class and party that 
 controls and necessarily must control this mighty state 
 apparatus. 
 
 What now is this Communist Party which claims to 
 represent the proletariat by divine right, not only in 
 Russia but throughout the whole world and by repre- 
 senting the world proletariat, proposes to take possession 
 of the earth and all it contains? 
 
 Here are the official Soviet statistics of the Party 
 membership of some 604,000 (we omit a few unimpor- 
 tant figures) : 
 
 Government or town officials. 318,000 53 Per Cent. 
 
 Officers and Soldiers 162,00027 " " 
 
 Party Employees 36,000 6 " " 
 
 Workingmen 70,00011 " "
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 41 
 
 But while the Communist Party represents a little 
 more than one per cent, of the adult population of 
 Russia, Zinoviev, in opening the congress of the Soviets 
 last December (see Pravda, December 29, 1920) boast- 
 fully asserted that the percentage of Communists in 
 the provincial executive commissions was ninety-nine! 
 From these figures, we may see that in Soviet Russia 
 each Communist counts for as much as ten thousand 
 non-party members. 
 
 Yet the Soviet chiefs continue to make the most 
 preposterous claims on behalf of the party. For 
 example Lenin declared in his closing speech at the 
 Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (see Moscow 
 Wireless of March 20, 1921) that " there is no other 
 power except the Communist Party that is capable of 
 uniting millions of widely distributed small farmers." 
 In view of the fact shown in the above statistics that 
 the agriculturists do not include more than two or 
 three per cent, of the membership of the Communist 
 Party although they outnumber that party by more 
 than fifty to one, we can get some notion of the extreme 
 degree of untruthfulness which the Bolshevists, by 
 long and strenuous practice, have finally attained. But 
 all this flood of falsehood is proving useless for Bol- 
 shevist purposes, since the discussion within the Com- 
 munist ranks itself is now disclosing the full truth. 
 Late in 1920 Trotzky complained in the Pravda: 
 
 The people are now maintaining the same attitude 
 toward the Soviet Regeme which they maintained 
 against capitalism, as a force exploiting it and robbing 
 it of its toil. Our problem is to regain the support 
 of the workers.
 
 42 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Ossinsky, a prominent Communist, sums up the anti- 
 democratic retrogression of the Bolshevist regime in 
 Pravda, December 20, 1920, as follows: 
 
 For three years the Soviet Government has seriously 
 turned aside from the principles of proletarian democ- 
 racy, and from the spirit of the Soviet Constitution. On 
 the one hand, there have been created two legislative 
 bodies, not provided by our constitution the Council of 
 Defense and the Military Revolutionary Council ; on the 
 other, all constitution organs (legislative as well as exec- 
 utive) have virtually disappeared. 
 
 The eclipse of the Central Executive Committee is 
 generally known. But even the Council of People's 
 Commissars and the Council of Defense, which have 
 ostensibly replaced the Central Executive Committee, 
 have been, in their turn, eclipsed by still another body. 
 
 In reality the centre of political leadership has been 
 shifted to the Central Committee of the Communist 
 party, and even here to a smaller body, the "Political 
 Bureau" of this committee. 
 
 Legislative measures, diplomatic acts, and military 
 plans decided by this "Politik-Bureau" are formally 
 sanctioned and issued in the name either of the People 's 
 Commissars or the Council of Defense. Diplomatic 
 notes and military plans do not need even such formal 
 sanction of any of the existing legislative or executive 
 organs of the State. 
 
 In describing the steady reactionary trend toward 
 the dictatorship of a smaller and smaller number of 
 men, we cannot stop with the assertion that it is the 
 Communist Party that controls, for the question arises, 
 who controls the Communist Party? This is easily 
 answered. At a special meeting of the Soviet Economic 
 Conference in January, 1920, Lenin said:
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 43 
 
 No matter what domain of Soviet activity we turn 
 to, we see a small portion of the conscious proletariat, 
 a still greater number of the less conscious, and then 
 at the very foundation, an enormous mass of peasants 
 who have all retained their individual economic habits 
 of free commerce and speculation. Such are the con- 
 ditions under which we must act and which determine 
 appropriate methods of action. . . . 
 
 In the autocracy of the chiefs of communism and the 
 communist domination of the people lies the pledge of 
 our success. 
 
 "What we really have in Soviet Russia is the rule 
 of the chiefs of the Bolshevist Party, the congresses 
 of that organization being cut and dried affairs. "We 
 must not forget that the Commissars in control of the 
 Bolshevist Government are able to apply their dicta- 
 torial power over Communist party members, using not 
 only rewards and punishments for their purposes but 
 also the frightful "Extraordinary Commission for Com- 
 bating Counter-Eevolution. " Furthermore the Execu- 
 tive of the Party reserves the right of purging it from 
 time to time of unsatisfactory members and thousands 
 **upon thousands have been put out in this way. At 
 the same time entrance is made extremely difficult and 
 is controlled by the central committee. The excuse 
 for all this centralization within the Party is, of course, 
 the necessities of the revolutionary civil war that is 
 still raging and, as we show below, is expected to 
 continue to rage for the next twenty-five or fifty years. 
 
 The following paragraphs from the long resolution 
 of the Second Congress of the Communist Internation- 
 ale already quoted sufficiently indicate the power
 
 44 OUT OF THEIR. OWN MOUTHS 
 
 placed in the hands of the Communist bosses by the 
 constitution of their organization: 
 
 The 2nd Congress of the Communist Internationale 
 should not only affirm the historic mission of the Com- 
 munist Party in general, but should indicate to the 
 International Proletariat, at least in its fundamental 
 features, precisely what kind of a Communist Party 
 we need. 
 
 The Communist Internationale considers that the 
 Communist Party should be built up on the basis of 
 iron proletarian centralism particularly in the epoch 
 of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In order to be 
 able to direct successfully the activities of the working 
 class in the long and persistent civil war which im- 
 pends, the Communist Party itself must operate within 
 its own ranks iron military order. 
 
 Under the " military order" of an "iron proletarian 
 centralism" any practical person may easily grasp the 
 futility of such reforms as are now proposed for "the 
 ending of the dictatorship of the people's commissars" 
 and "the taking over of actual control of the affairs 
 of state by the Central Executive Committee of the 
 Soviets." (Resolution of the 1920 Soviet Congress.) 
 Where is there any authority honestly to carry out 
 this proposed change outside of the Communist Party? 
 The resolution on February 9, 1921, by which the Cen- 
 tral Executive Committee ordered the local Soviets con- 
 voked and given "full power," was also mere verbiage. 
 As these local governing bodies consist to the extent of 
 ninety-nine per cent (see Zinoviev's figures above 
 quoted) of Communists under the dictatorial power of 
 the Soviet Commissars as chiefs of the Party, what 
 change has taken place?
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 45 
 
 But is this a merely transitional party dictatorship 
 while the foreign wars continue and while the victory 
 of the Communists is not yet assured? Not at all. In 
 his speech before the Communist Internationale, as 
 quoted in the Moscow Pravda, December 3, 1920, Zino- 
 viev declared: "After the victory the role of the party 
 does not decline but on the contrary increases." We 
 have already quoted the resolution of that Congress 
 referring to "the long and persistent civil war which 
 impends." Again Lenin says in his "Theses," which 
 were adopted by the Congress: 
 
 The conquest of political power by the proletariat 
 does not bring about the cessation of class struggle 
 against the bourgeoisie, but on the contrary, makes 
 this struggle especially wide, sharp, and pitiless. 
 
 What before the victory of the proletariat appears 
 theoretically as merely a difference of opinion on the 
 question of "democracy," after the proletarian victory 
 becomes inevitably a question to be decided by force 
 of arms. 
 
 On January 30, 1921, Lenin said to the visiting 
 delegation of Spanish Socialists: 
 
 We never speak about liberty. We practice the 
 proletariat's dictatorship in the name of the minority 
 because the peasant class has not yet become proletariat 
 and are not with us. It will continue until they subject 
 themselves. Presumably the dictatorship will last about 
 forty years. 
 
 Similarly Lenin declared to Serrati, the Italian 
 revolutionary leader, a few months earlier, that the
 
 46 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 dictatorship would last twenty-five years to fifty 
 years. The Second Communist Internationale concludes 
 its discussion of the dictatorial role of the Communist 
 Party (above quoted) as follows: 
 
 The aim of a political party of the proletariat dis- 
 appears only with the complete destruction of classes. 
 In the process of achieving this final victory of Com- 
 munism it is possible that the "specific gravity of the 
 three fundamental proletarian organizations of our 
 time, the party, the Soviet, and the productive unions, 
 will undergo changes, and that eventually a unified 
 type of labor organization will become crystallized. But 
 the Communist Party will become dissolved completely 
 in the working class at the time when Communism will 
 cease to be the aim of the struggle, and when the whole 
 working class will becom'e communistic. 
 
 The fact that the dictatorship of the proletariat is not 
 regarded as a rapidly passing phase was again brought 
 out by Lenin at the Congress of the Communist Party 
 in March, 1920 when the Bolshevist leader said: 
 
 We must base our activities with regard to class rela- 
 tions in our country and in other countries, so as to 
 retain the dictatorship of the proletariat for a prolonged 
 period and to extricate ourselves if only gradually from 
 the misfortunes and crises which have come upon us. 
 
 Not only do the Bolshevists promulgate for all coun- 
 tries a long period of dictatorship similar to what we 
 now see in Russia, but they believe that this will be 
 a period of civil war justifying all manner of terrorism, 
 violence and extreme measures. As the resolution 
 above cited frequently says, a long period of civil war
 
 THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 47 
 
 is before us. During this civil war no other parties 
 have a right to represent the proletariat, no matter 
 what their numerical support, except the Communist 
 Party. The attitude of the Communists toward other 
 political organizations of labor is shown by the follow- 
 ing remarks of Lenin: 
 
 "We see in practice that the unity of the proletariat 
 during a social revolution may be achieved only by 
 the extreme revolutionary party of Marxism, and only 
 by means of a ruthless struggle against other parties 
 (Lenin at Transport "Workers' Congress Economic Life, 
 December 3, 1920). 
 
 The Social Revolutionaries, the Menshevists and the 
 Kerenskys? . . . Everyone who is at present acting 
 against the Soviet Government and calls himself a non- 
 party member lies (Lenin at meeting of Central Ex- 
 excutive Committee, Moscow Wireless, March 23, 1921). 
 
 Not only are all other labor parties and non-party 
 members declared to be non-labor or bourgeois, but, 
 whenever they assume any importance, they are defi- 
 nitely excluded from the Soviets, as we see from the 
 following decree: 
 
 (All-Russian Central Executive Committee, June 14- 
 (1), 1918.) 
 
 Whereas, The presence in the Soviet organization of 
 representatives of parties that clearly strive to dis- 
 credit and overthrow the authority of the_ Soviets is 
 absolutely inadmissible : 
 
 Therefore, the All-Russian Central Executive " Com- 
 mittee of Soviets resolves to exclude from its member- 
 ship representatives of the parties of Socialist-Revolu- 
 tionaries (Right and Center), Russian Social-Demo-
 
 48 OUT OF^THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 cratic Workmen's Party (Menshevists), and also to 
 propose to all Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers', Peas- 
 ants' and Cossacks' Deputies to remove the represen- 
 tatives of these fractions from their midst. 
 
 (Signed) PRESIDENT OF ALL-RUSSIAN CEN- 
 TRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 
 
 Y. SVERDLOV. 
 Secretary V. Avanesov. 
 
 Not only are leaders of all opposition parties ex- 
 cluded from the Soviet whenever they become power- 
 ful, but they are regarded as traitors and treated 
 accordingly. The only opposition tolerated is obliged 
 to call itself "non-partisan," and even the non-partisans 
 are "suspect" and subject to sudden punishment. 
 
 [Lenin's speech above quoted is only one of many 
 evidences of this attitude.]
 
 IV 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 
 
 As early as September, 1918, Mr. Wilson, then Presi-' 
 dent, made an effective appeal to the civilized world 
 against the crimes, the " barbarism," the "mass terror- 
 ism" and the "indiscriminate slaughter" of the Bol- 
 shevists. He called for all civilized nations to with- 
 draw their official representatives from Soviet Russia, 
 and every civilized nation without exception responded 
 to his call. 
 
 The reign of terror continues and in many respects 
 has grown worse. Again and again the Bolshevist 
 chiefs and assemblies have re-endorsed terrorism. At 
 the second congress of the Communist Internationale, 
 in the summer of 1920, Lenin declared that "no dicta- 
 torship of the proletariat is to be thought of without 
 terror and violence against the bitter foes of the pro- 
 letariat and the laboring masses." Let us remember 
 that this international meeting is the highest Com- 
 munist authority and the principles accepted there are 
 binding until the next annual meeting, and that Lenin 
 and his immediate associates reserve to themselves the 
 right to define just who are to be regarded as "the 
 bitter foes of the proletariat and the laboring masses." 
 
 Anybody Lenin and Trotzky desire to destroy they 
 first label "bourgeois," but they are just as ready to 
 apply this term to laboring men or their elected leaders 
 
 49
 
 50 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 
 
 or to laboring agriculturists as they are to apply it 
 to former employers. On October 5, 1920, Trotzky 
 said: 
 
 The bourgeoisie must be torn off, cut off. The Bed 
 Terror is an instrument used against a class doomed 
 to go under and which does not want to go under. 
 
 An even stronger expression was used at the begin- 
 ning of the Bolshevist rule by Latsis, one of the chiefs 
 of the Extraordinary Commission, which is charged 
 with putting the Bed Terror into effect. In the organ 
 called the Bed Terror (November 1, 1918) Latsis wrote: 
 
 We are no longer waging war against separate in- 
 dividuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a 
 class. 
 
 Do not seek in the dossier of the accused for proofs 
 as to whether he opposed the Soviet Government by 
 word or deed. The first question that should be put 
 is to what class he belongs, of what extraction, what 
 education and profession. These questions should 
 decide the fate of the accused. Herein lies the mean- 
 ing and the essence of the Bed Terror. 
 
 This description gives a good picture of the methods 
 of the Bed Terror, but the list of classes which were 
 to be exterminated was soon extended to embrace all 
 anti-Bolshevists, no matter whether they themselves 
 were wage earners and no matter how many thousands 
 or ten thousands of wage earners they represented. In 
 a speech made on April 3, 1921, before the railway 
 workers in Moscow Lenin stated that "the bourgeois 
 class does not exist any more in Russia," and boasted
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 51 
 
 that it nad been " completely destroyed" by the Bol- 
 shevists. We may point out that this is merely a ter- 
 rible boast, for it is well known that after slaughtering 
 the "bourgeoisie" for a year or more Lenin publicly 
 acknowledged that he not only needed the experts in 
 this class but was ready to retain them at very high 
 salaries. But in view of their previous treatment and 
 the treatment of their relatives and friends we can be 
 assured that these bourgeois, far from being good Bol- 
 shevists, maintain their former views and are waiting 
 for a chance at revenge. 
 
 Trotzky has tried to justify mass terror (from signed 
 article in Izvestia of January 10, 1919, under title 
 "Military Specialists and the Red Army") : 
 
 By its terror against saboteurs the proletariat does 
 not at all say: "I shall wipe out all of you and get 
 along without specialists." Such a program would be 
 a program of hopelessness and ruin. While dispersing, 
 arresting and shooting saboteurs and conspirators, the 
 proletariat says: "I shall break your will, because my 
 will is stronger than yours, and I shall force you to 
 serve me." . . . Terror as the demonstration of the 
 will and strength of the working class, is historically 
 justified, precisely because the proletariat was able 
 thereby to break the political will of the intelligentsia, 
 pacify the professional men of various categories and 
 work, and gradually subordinate them to its own aims 
 within the fields of their specialties. 
 
 The conspirators referred to in this paragraph are 
 all those who stand for the right of the Russian people 
 to elect their own representative government in the place 
 of the tyranny that is now imposed upon them; the
 
 52 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 "saboteurs" are the professional men and experts 
 whose wills could not be successfully forced. 
 
 In a letter to British labor dated May 30, 1920, Lenin, 
 after denouncing the democracy of the British Labor 
 Party, their pacifism, etc., says of its leaders: "The 
 sooner they share the fate of Kerensky, 'the Men- 
 sheviks and Social Revolutionists in Russia ' ' the better. 
 "What this fate was we shall see below. Lenin then 
 continues : 
 
 Some of the members of your delegation have asked 
 me with surprise concerning Red Terror, about the lack 
 of the freedom of the Press, about the lack of freedom 
 of assembly, about our persecution of Mensheviks and 
 Menshevik workers, etc. . . . Our Red Terror is a de- 
 fense of the working class against the exploiters; it 
 is the suppression of the resistance of the exploiters 
 with whom the Social Revolutionists, the Mensheviks, 
 and an insignificant number of Menshevik workers 
 align themselves. . . . The same "leaders" of workers 
 who are conducting a non-communist policy are 99 per 
 cent, representatives of the bourgeoisie, of its deceit, of 
 its prejudices. 
 
 Here is a definite official statement by the Bolshevist 
 chief that a regularly elected labor leader may be re- 
 garded as 99 per cent, bourgeois and he is often so 
 regarded for purposes of imprisonment or execution. 
 
 The Bolshevist Czar recently issued a ukase saying 
 that prisoners belonging to all active anti-Bolshevist 
 groups would be held as all bound together as hostages 
 for the lives of the Bolshevist chiefs referring back 
 to the butchery of hundreds of such hostages after the 
 assassination of the bloody Uritzky and the attack
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 53 
 
 on Lenin in 1918. Here are the words of the decree 
 as carried in the official Izvestia on November 30, 1920 : 
 
 Confident of its impregnability, the Soviet Govern- 
 ment is nevertheless very far from offering an oppor- 
 tunity to these counter-revolutionists and agents of the 
 Allies for resuming again the methods of struggle used 
 by them in 1918 and resulting in a stern lesson in Red 
 Terror in retaliation. 
 
 The Workers' and Peasants' Government has in its 
 hands quite a sufficient number of prominent and 
 responsible counter-revolutionary leaders from the 
 camp of all the above-mentioned groups, especially 
 from among the Wrangel officers. Regarding all of 
 them as bound together in a mutual pledge to relentless 
 struggle against the authority of the workers and 
 peasants, the Soviet Government declares the Socialists 
 Revolutionists of Savinkov 's and Chernov 's groups, the 
 White Guards of the National and Tactical Centre, and 
 Wrangel 's officers hostages. In the event of an at- 
 tempt on the lives of the leaders of Soviet Russia the 
 responsible partisans (literally in the Russian text 
 those who think likewise) of the organizers of an 
 attempt will be exterminated without mercy. 
 
 In order fully to realize what this means let us quote 
 from the appeal to the Socialists of the world by Mar- 
 toff, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labor 
 Party an appeal that has been endorsed by the well- 
 known syndicalist Merrheim, head of the French Metal 
 Workers and one of the leaders of the Confederation 
 Generate du Travail. Referring to the above ukase, 
 Martoff, who is well and favorably known by the entire 
 labor movement of Europe, writes: 
 
 Let all who would take this warning lightly remem- 
 ber the fatal experiment which has already been made
 
 64 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 in Soviet Kussia. In September, 1918, after the murder 
 of Uritzky, Chief of the Petrograd police, and the at- 
 tempt to shoot Lenin, the Soviet Government declared 
 all the anti-Bolsheviks to be hostages in the event of 
 further assassinations, and at the same time, as a 
 reprisal for the acts of terrorism already committed, 
 ordered a number of these "hostages" in several towns 
 to be shot. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the number of men and 
 women killed at that time. The general public com- 
 motion forced the Government to conceal the true ex- 
 tent of the hideous massacre after the publication of 
 the first lists of victims. But from these lists it is 
 known that in Petrograd 512 people were shot, 152 
 in Penza, 41 in Nijni-Novgorod, 30 in Smolensk, 29 in 
 Moscow, 6 in Mojaisk, 4 in Morshansk, 7 in Nijni- 
 Lvoff, and 7 in Schemlara. The last echo of this mad- 
 ness was the proclamation of the Petrozavodsk (in 
 Northern Russia) Extraordinary Commission that it 
 shot 14 bourgeois hostages as a revenge for the murder 
 of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl LiebknechU 
 
 Just after the above-mentioned attempts on the lives 
 of Lenin and other Bolsheviks, the Social-Revolutionary 
 party stated officially that it had nothing to do with 
 these assassinations ; but this statement did not prevent 
 the Bolsheviks shooting down like dogs members of 
 the Social-Revolutionary party. The terrorist madness 
 of the Bolsheviks, once let loose, ignored the difference 
 between the different sections of their political opponents. 
 In Petrograd they shot the metal worker Krakovsky, 
 a member of the Social-Democratic Labor Party ; three 
 members of the same party in Ribinsk, leaders of local 
 trade unions (Ramin, Sokoloff and Levin) ; and in 
 Nijni-Novgorod the secretary of the local party com- 
 mittee, Comrade Ridnik. 
 
 The great majority of the victims belonged to the 
 bourgeois class, and were not mixed up with politics; 
 they were arrested, not because of some crime com-
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 55 
 
 mitted, but as ' ' suspicious persons ' ' whom it was neces- 
 sary to isolate. Men and women, boys and aged people 
 all were shot because two men, political fanatics, had 
 plotted the murder of two leaders of the Communist 
 party. 
 
 The official execution and wholesale butchery of hos- 
 tages referred to by Martoff is boastfully avowed in 
 the official Soviet pamphlet by which the Bolshevists 
 have sought to sum up and popularize the Red Terror 
 and the Extraordinary Commission. This pamphlet, 
 written by Latsis, is printed by the Soviet Printing 
 Office in Moscow, 1920. As to the 1918 butchery, Lat- 
 sis in Chapter 5 of the pamphlet declares: 
 
 But the murderess, the hysterical Kaplan, missed her 
 aim. The Extraordinary Commission exacted costly 
 retribution for these murders. In Petrograd alone as 
 many as 500 persons were shot as an answer to the shots 
 fired at Comrades Lenin and Uritzky. 
 
 Those who dreamed of killing the revolution by 
 murdering the leaders severely wounded themselves, 
 and the damages inflicted by the proletariat were a 
 whole year in healing. 
 
 The Bolshevist remedy for insufficient productivity 
 on the part of labor, known as sabotage, is thus sum- 
 marized in Chapter 3 of this illuminating document : 
 
 Those who were practicing sabotage were (either) 
 shot to death or imprisoned by us, but nevertheless up 
 to this time they have eluded us in large numbers and 
 destroyed our apparatus and transports. Such work 
 is nothing else than the same counter-revolution. It 
 was so regarded by the Extraordinary Commission,
 
 56 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 and those guilty of sabotage were punished without 
 mercy. The Extraordinary Commission threw its best 
 forces into the fight against this manifestation, and 
 is now working in various institutions. There is but 
 one way to get rid of this pestilence burn it out with 
 a hot iron. And that is what the Extraordinary Com- 
 mission is doing. 
 
 We now come to another class of crime punished 
 by execution without trial or any other process of law, 
 viz., the crime of affiliation with the socialist and labor 
 parties which think they have a right to a voice in 
 the government in proportion to their numerical sup- 
 port. This is not the Bolshevist view. And the punish- 
 ment for the effort to institute either a democratic or 
 a non-Bolshevist socialist government of any character 
 is likely to be death. We quote the following from 
 Chapter 4 of the above mentioned official pamphlet: 
 
 But there is still another kind of counter-revolu- 
 tionists those who are such because they do not think. 
 These are people who not seldom desire the triumph 
 of the working class, but do not understand how this 
 is to be accomplished. This is the whole Socialist Party, 
 entering into agreement with the enemies of the work- 
 ing class, the bourgeoisie. There are several such 
 parties among us; Social-Revolutionists of the Right, 
 Social-Revolutionists of the Left, and the Mensheviks. 
 
 They do not believe in the strength of the working 
 class and therefore desire to trade with their class 
 enemy, the bourgeoisie. They forget that civil war is a 
 war not for life but to the death; a war in which prisoners 
 are not taken and no compromises made, but opponents 
 are killed. As there can be no amity between wolves 
 and lambs, so there can be no conciliation between the 
 bourgeoisie and the workmen. You may beat the wolf
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 57 
 
 as you will but he will still remain savage; so the 
 bourgeoisie does not change his nature. 
 
 We must recall in this connection that the civil war 
 is looked upon by the Bolshevists as likely to last a 
 generation or more and that all non-Bolshevist work- 
 ing men are labelled "bourgeois." 
 
 Without counting irregular executions, assassina- 
 tions, massacres and military killings of many different 
 kinds, the Extraordinary Commission, in the pamphlet 
 quoted, confesses that it executed 2,024 persons for the 
 sole fact of belonging to an anti-Bolshevist organization 
 such organizations, as we have said, being always 
 labelled for Bolshevist purposes as counter-revolution- 
 ary or bourgeoisie. This does not include 3,082 persons 
 executed for insurrection and 455 for inciting insurrec- 
 tion. The immense scope of the Extraordinary Com- 
 mission and the use of the death penalty for offenses 
 for which it has not been used in civilized countries 
 for centuries, is shown in Chapter 2 of the pamphlet 
 quoted: 
 
 The sphere of the labors of the Extraordinary Com- 
 mission was determined by the activities of the counter- 
 revolutionary elements; but, as there was no domain 
 of life into which the counter-revolutionists had not 
 intruded themselves, and where their destructive work 
 was not manifested, the Extraordinary Commission 
 often had to enter quite positively into all phases of 
 life: stores, transportation, Red army, navy, militia, 
 schools, consulates, industry, assessments, etc. 
 
 But the Extraordinary Commission had to interest 
 itself not only in direct counter-revolutionary work. 
 There are acts committed by no means intended cer-
 
 58 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 tainly to injure the Soviet authority, but simply for 
 personal advantage without considering the conse- 
 quences. Such are speculation, crimes in office (in 
 part), banditry, and desertion. 
 
 But as such acts do no less harm to the Soviet 
 authority than the open counter-revolutionary manifes- 
 tations, they were followed up in the same manner 
 as the rest. 
 
 For the sake of convenience in assimilating and 
 mastering all the (details of the) immense work per- 
 formed by the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, 
 we present it to the reader in the same category which 
 in the main was pursued in the course of the work 
 itself, and in the same order in which it developed, 
 namely : 
 
 1. Sabotage. 
 
 2. Counter-revolution. 
 
 3. Speculation. 
 
 4. Crimes in office. 
 
 5. Banditry. 
 
 6. Uprisings of the rich peasants (land-grabbers-). 
 
 7. Desertion. 
 
 The use of the expression "rich peasant" needs com- 
 ment. The peasant who is resisting the Bolshevists is 
 called by them for the purposes of execution "rich." 
 It is needless to say that there are no ricfc or well-to-'do 
 peasants in Russia after all the economic degeneration 
 of the past ten years, and especially in view of four 
 years of Bolshevist persecution and attack on all 
 peasants who were well enough off to muster up any 
 effective resistance. 
 
 The attitude to the peasantry is indicated in other 
 Bolshevist documents as, for instance, the following
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 59' 
 
 passage from an order directed against the Cossacks a 
 name applied to the agriculturists of a certain section : 
 
 To institute a mass terror against the well-to-do 
 Cossacks and peasants, exterminating them wholesale, 
 and to institute a ruthless mass terror against those 
 Cossacks in general who have any direct or indirect 
 part in the struggle against the Soviet power. 
 
 The Central Committee of the Russian Com- 
 munist Party. 
 
 Chief of the Chancellery of the Political Sec- 
 tion of the Southern Front. 
 
 (Signed) Cherniak, 
 
 Secretary of the Political Section of the 8th 
 Army. 
 
 Steklov, in the Moscow Izvestia, declares that civil 
 war will continue until the Social Revolutionaries and 
 the "koulaks" (the better-off agriculturists) who are 
 hampering the work of construction, particularly that 
 of revictualling, are completely exterminated. 
 
 Here is another example. The peasants have in many 
 places organized armies for self-defense which cannot 
 by any stretch of the imagination be called Whites. 
 These so-called ''Green Armies" are defending the vil- 
 lages from the foraging and punishment expeditions 
 of the Red armies. This is how a recent decree of the 
 Extraordinary Commission in Southern Russia pro- 
 poses to deal with them: 
 
 The majority of the Greens who are now in the moun- 
 tains have their relatives in the villages. These have all 
 been registered, and in case of an attack by these bands 
 all adult relatives of those who are fighting against
 
 60 OUT k OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 us will be shot, while their minor relatives will be 
 deported to Central Russia. 
 
 In the event of a mass rising of any village, stanitza 
 or city, we shall apply mass terror against these locali- 
 ties ; for every Soviet representative that will be killed 
 hundreds of inhabitants of these villages and stanitzas 
 will have to suffer. 
 
 The Bolshevist remedy for any and all opponents is 
 to find some opprobrious epithet to apply to them, in- 
 dicating treason to Bolshevism, and then to crush them 
 with the Red Terror. This method is evidently to be 
 used even against the valiant Red Army. The peasants 
 who constituted ninety per cent, of the Army are being 
 demobilized. The remainder, said to be some hundred 
 thousand men, are either mercenary foreigners, Chinese, 
 Hungarian, Letts, etc., under the name of the "inter- 
 national" army, or communist fanatics. The first step 
 towards the persecution of the rank and file of the 
 Red Army was to deprive them of all rights. Leon 
 Trotzky in his Order of the Revolutionary Military 
 Council, No. 296, dated November 10, 1920, declared: 
 
 The country is in danger. The false notion that the 
 army has any civic rights threatens the existence of 
 the free Russian people and the Revolution. 
 
 It may be recalled that the Bolshevists came into 
 power by standing for the rights of soldiers even to 
 the point of the right to elect their own officers. But 
 now, having deprived the peasant soldiers of all rights, 
 Lenin is apparently upon the point of turning the Red 
 Terror against them. To a meeting of the railway
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 61 
 
 workers in Moscow, reported in the Bolshevist Wireless 
 of April 3 (1921) he said: 
 
 The soldiers do not wish to go back to cultivate their 
 land and become peaceful workers. The demobilized 
 soldiers are our greatest enemies. They have been 
 accustomed to rob and pillage and murder. They have 
 been accustomed to satisfy only their own needs and 
 desires. 
 
 It is evident that a despot who feels he has the power 
 to wage war against the personnel of his own army 
 is liable to proceed against any other element of his 
 subjects. 
 
 The use of the Extraordinary Commission and of 
 terroristic methods against labor is shown in the fol- 
 lowing passages from the report drawn up on February 
 1 by the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party: 
 
 In Mohilev the entire membership of both the Rus- 
 sion Social-Democratic Labor Party and the Bund were 
 arrested during the night of the 1st of November. The 
 Extraordinary Commission gave the following motives 
 for the arrest: "guilty of pernicious criticism of the 
 Soviet power and its activities, thereby affecting very 
 badly various measures taken by said power, and, since 
 it occurred in the war zone it affects detrimentally 
 the gallant Red Army." Among those sentenced (to 
 forced labor in various concentration camps until the 
 end of the civil war) were. . . . 
 
 Towards the close of the year the " verdict" (ad- 
 ministrative order without trial) was handed down. 
 Astrov, Korobkov, Grossmann, Babin, Tkatchenko, 
 Kuchin-Oransky and others were sentenced "for be- 
 longing to the right wing of the Russian Social-Demo- 
 cratic Labor Party" to confinement in a concentration 
 camp throughout the duration of the civil war.
 
 62 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 In Yekaterinburg our attempt to take part in the 
 election campaign for the Soviet was punished by the 
 arrest of the local Committee of our Party (comrades 
 Kliatchko, Ossovsky and others), together with the 
 member of the Central Committee, D. Dalin and 6 
 workers of the Verkhne-Issetski Factory. At the home 
 of N. N. Sukhanov a domiciliary search was made. A 
 month later the prisoners were freed by a direct order 
 from Moscow, as the purpose of the arrests had been 
 accomplished, the elections to the Soviet having been 
 most "successful" for the Bolsheviki. 
 
 In Tula the outrageous behavior of the factory Com- 
 missary caused an outburst among the workmen of the 
 Arms Factory, which spread to all other establishments 
 in that city. The protest took at first the form of a 
 strike, but following the arrest of strikers it assumed 
 the form of so-called " self -imprisonment," i.e., the 
 workmen and their wives compelled the Bolsheviki to 
 arrest them, thus expressing their solidarity with the 
 prisoners. In this way several thousand workers were 
 arrested in those days. The reprisals were severe, 
 wholesale deportations to the front were resorted to 
 and, as a climax, 12 of the strikers were turned over 
 to a field court martial and sentenced to hard labor 
 for life. And in reply to the attempt made by the 
 Social-Democratic group of the local Soviet to have 
 the trouble settled peaceably, the group was arrested 
 during its session. 
 
 The Social Democratic Party (Menshevists) have 
 also brought before the labor world a full report of 
 the persecution of the Russian printers and of other 
 Soviet atrocities against labor. 
 
 This party finally made a strong appeal to British 
 Labor prompted by the fact that the British Labor 
 delegation to Russia had issued a report that was in
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 63 
 
 part mildly critical or ambiguous, but, on the whole, 
 was distinctly friendly to the Bolshevist regime. In- 
 dividual members of the delegation practically half 
 of it, including Tom Shaw, Ben Turner, Mrs. Philip 
 Snowden, Dr. Haden Guest, as well as Bertrand Rus- 
 sell, who accompanied the delegation had issued the 
 strongest adverse statements. But the report, as a 
 whole, was friendly, doubtless owing to domestic 
 politics and to diplomatic motives which do not appear. 
 This was all the more shocking to the Russian Socialists 
 and Trade Unionists since all other foreign labor 
 delegations Germans, Italians, Swedish and Spanish, 
 had had the courage of their convictions. (See Chapter 
 XII.) The Social Democratic appeal is therefore 
 doubly important, serving not only as a picture of 
 Russian labor persecution but as an indictment of the 
 inexcusable failure of the British delegation even to 
 touch on these vital matters in its one-sided report 
 from which was excluded also the valuable individual 
 testimony of Mrs. Snowden and other delegates, while 
 the pro-Bolshevist material of the extremists, Robert 
 Williams, Purcell, and Margaret Bondfield, was repro- 
 duced. 
 
 The Social Democratic appeal secured the following 
 endorsement from Merrheim, Secretary of the largest 
 French labor union, the Metal Workers, a leader of 
 the French Confederation of Labor, and an ultra- 
 pacifist and syndicalist himself: 
 
 Such are the facts. . . . There should arise the 
 vehement and indignant protest of all trade union mem- 
 bers and socialists (throughout the world) who still 
 have a sense of dignity and independence.
 
 64 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The principal paragraphs of this appeal are as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 To the British Workmen and to the Members of the 
 Labor Delegates to Russia 
 
 DEAR COMRADES: 
 
 We, the undersigned, Russian socialists, have received 
 from Russia the information stating that the visit of 
 the British labour delegation to Russia last summer has 
 resulted in severe reprisals and persecutions for all the 
 socialists who were bold enough to criticize openly the 
 soviet regime and the actions of the Russian communist 
 party. 
 
 Well-known leaders of the labour movement in Russia, 
 who for many years fought against Tsarism, who spent 
 long and weary years in prison and in exile, and who 
 hold prominent positions in the Russian trade union 
 movement, have once more been severely sentenced, 
 imprisoned and exiled by the soviet government. 
 
 We wish to repeat here a few facts mentioned in the 
 above circulars: 
 
 1. Comrade F. Dan, a member of the central com- 
 mittee of the Russian socialist-democratic labour party, 
 and one of the oldest members of the party, has been 
 exiled from Moscow to Perm. 
 
 2. Two members of the central committee of the 
 socialist-democratic party (Mensheviki), Comrades 
 Dalin and Troyanovsky, are in prison in Moscow. 
 
 3. All the members of the executive committee of the 
 Moscow printers' union, headed by Comrade Deviat- 
 kin, have been arrested; the printers' union is dis- 
 persed; workmen who came out on strike to express 
 their protest against such actions of the soviet govern- 
 ment have been searched and prosecuted. 
 
 4. Victor Chernov, a member of the central commit- 
 tee of the socialist-revolutionary party, spoke at the
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 65 
 
 printers' meeting in Moscow in the presence of several 
 members of the British labour delegates; he was, how- 
 ever obliged to hide after this speech, as it has made 
 the Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) very angry, 
 and they wanted to arrest him. They could not find 
 him, and arrested instead his wife and daughters, aged 
 10 and 17 years. 
 
 5. Comrade Abramovich, member of the central com- 
 mittee of the socialist-democratic party, welcomed the 
 British labour delegation at a meeting of the Moscow 
 Soviet. In his speech he pointed out the actual con- 
 dition of the Russian labour classes under the bolshevik 
 yoke, and was in consequence, through intrigues and 
 pressure from the Russian communist party, expelled 
 from the soviet. 
 
 We are in possession of many other similar facts, 
 but it would take too long to state them all here. We 
 think that the above facts are quite sufficient proof 
 that there is no freedom in soviet Russia, and that even 
 the socialist parties can not propagate their ideas 
 legally and unrestrictedly. 
 
 We feel we must put the following questions to the 
 British workmen and to you, members of the British 
 labour delegation. Do you know these facts? If you 
 do, what do you intend to do in order to alleviate the 
 sufferings of these Russian socialists who were ~bold 
 enough to tell you the entire truth about Russia? Don't 
 you consider that you are also responsible for their mis- 
 fortunes and sufferings? 
 
 We, the adherents of the socialists who are being so 
 severely persecuted by the Russian communist party 
 ruling in Russia under the disguise of the soviet gov- 
 ernment, think you can not and must not be indifferent 
 to the actual results of your policy. 
 
 We are deeply convinced that in protesting against 
 the blockade and intervention the British proletariat was 
 prompted by noble motives the British workmen meant 
 to support the cause of the Russian democracy, the cause
 
 66 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 of the great Russian revolution. If they did mean so, 
 they must understand that the struggle against the 
 world's reactionaries must go hand in hand with the 
 struggle for the principles of the Russian democracy. 
 
 You denounce the blockade, the intervention and the 
 counter-revolution. But you must also denounce the 
 slavery that has been introduced into Russia by the Rus- 
 sian communist party. Only then will the Russian work- 
 ing classes consider you their real friends. . . . 
 
 You have interfered in Russian domestic affairs by 
 your struggle against the blockade, against support of 
 the counter-revolution, and for the recognition of the 
 soviet government. Your intervention was and is one- 
 sided. You supported the soviet government, but you 
 did not support the Russian proletariat and peasantry 
 who fought against the despotism of the soviet govern- 
 ment during all these terrible years. . . . 
 
 Some thirty days after this original appeal was issued 
 the Social Democratic Party followed it up with a second 
 appeal showing that the persecutions, instead of becom- 
 ing milder, had become worse, especially under the Soviet 
 Government set up by Moscow in the Ukraine under the 
 leadership of Lenin's right bower, Rakovsky. This 
 Ukraine persecution seems to have been aimed mainly 
 and almost exclusively at the labor unions. The Social- 
 Democratic Labor Party portrays it in the following 
 convincing paragraphs: 
 
 With the object of the suppression of the social-demo- 
 cratic labor party, the bolsheviks have invented a new 
 weapon, which was used for the first time by H. T. 
 Rakovsky. The so-called Ukrainian government ordered 
 the exile to the Georgian borders, without any trial, of 
 seventeen of the most energetic leaders of the Russian 
 social-democratic labor party in the Ukraine. Amongst
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 67 
 
 them, are the members of the central Ukrainian com- 
 mittees of the social-democratic party comrades I. Bar 
 (former editor of the internationalist journal, "Golos," 
 in Paris during the war) , Zorohovitch, Shtern, A. Roubt- 
 zoff (a well-known leader of the trade union movement 
 amongst the metal workers), Schoulpin (leader of the 
 Miners' trade union), and a member of the Kharkoff 
 party committee, Boris Malkin. Ten other comrades 
 were sentenced at the same time, also without any trial, 
 to forced labor in the concentration camps, until "the 
 end of the civil war" (i.e., indefinitely). Among them 
 are the well-known social-democratic leader and trade 
 unionist, Astroff, the trade unionist, Korobkoff from 
 Odessa, members of the Kieff party committee, Tchijev- 
 sky and Kouchin-Oransky (the latter, a well-known 
 socialist author, had voluntarily joined the ranks of the 
 "Red" army as an officer at the beginning of the Polish 
 war), and the distinguished leaders of the Kharkoff shop 
 assistants' union of Babin and Grossman. 
 
 Most of the above mentioned comrades were arrested 
 in Kharkoff on August 19, during the provincial con- 
 ference of the Russian social-democratic labor party. 
 
 Several social-democrats, leaders of the trade union 
 movement in Kremenchug, were also exiled to Georgia. 
 The boards elected by the Kremenchug trade unions have 
 been dissolved and replaced by persons appointed by 
 local organizations of the communist party. 
 
 By such measures H. T. Rakovsky, who plays the 
 hideous part of a menshevist renegade, hopes to destroy 
 the influence of the well-organized social-democrats upon 
 the Ukrainian working classes. 
 
 The fate of the other popular party (the Social-Revolu- 
 tionists) has been even more horrible for they composed 
 the majority of the constitutional assembly which the 
 Bolshevists dispersed by bayonets and are the sole party 
 which can make any legitimate claim to represent the
 
 68 "OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 masses of the Russian peasants. The Social Revolution- 
 ary Party has also addressed to world labor a vigorous 
 protest outlining the refinement of physical and moral 
 tortures introduced under Lenin through that revival of 
 the Spanish inquisition, the Extraordinary Commission 
 for Fighting the Counter Revolution, presided over by 
 the world famed inquisitor and butcher, Djerzinsky. 
 
 The social revolutionists state that the wife of one 
 of the prisoners, A. T. Kuznetzov, was flogged by the 
 Bolshevist authorities for refusing to divulge her hus- 
 band's whereabouts; that not only were the wife and 
 daughters of Chernoff, Likhatch and the other leading 
 social revolutionary prisoners arrested but that in some 
 cases, their distant relatives were held as hostages ; that 
 the inquisition proposes to the wives of prisoners to enter 
 into its services as spies, promising to free their hus- 
 bands in return. 
 
 Here are the conditions of Russia's "political prison- 
 ers" and "conscientious objectors" as defined by the 
 executive committee of Russia's largest political organ- 
 ization. The protest is addressed in the first instance 
 to the Soviet authorities: 
 
 The refined cruelty of the ail-Russian and provincial 
 Extraordinary Commissions has reached such a stage 
 as to drive insane some of the arrested socialists- 
 revolutionists who can not endure the regime of 
 confinement in the city of Yaroslav, in the so-called 
 "soviet house of detention," over the entrance of 
 which there is flaunting a sign reading: "Rus- 
 sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic" and above 
 which sign there is the old Tzarist inscription: "Yaro- 
 slav Central Hard Labor Prison." There are many 
 tried and true champions of the workers' cause among
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 69 
 
 these persons to whom the March Revolution at last 
 opened the doors of their prisons, only to find the bars, 
 after a brief period of liberty, again closed on them, 
 this time, however, by your hands. 
 
 The prison regime to which our comrades have been 
 subjected in the Yaroslav soviet house of detention has 
 outdone the regime of the Tzarist central prison, and 
 even during the walks of the prisoners for their airings 
 they have been forbidden on pain of the severest penal- 
 ties to exchange ordinary greetings with each other. 
 Confined to damp, cold solitary cells, left for a long time 
 already without necessary repairs, with broken-down 
 heating, water and drainage systems, the prisoners have 
 been deprived of sunshine, light and air, and compelled 
 to live amidst filth and pestilential stench ; and if some 
 of them dared approach a window for a moment, the 
 prison guards would open fire at the window, acting 
 in accordance with instructions given them. 
 
 But if the outrages and brutalities, the denial of light 
 and air, and the shooting at the windows only repeat 
 and, perhaps, augment the methods used by the Tzarist 
 jailkeepers, torture by hunger is a new invention of the 
 "socialistic" prison regime. 
 
 The form of feeding the prisoners at Yaroslav falls 
 even far below the rations officially acknowledged by 
 you as hunger rations. The prisoners receive one pound 
 of raw, half-baked bread, and soup with some beet leaves 
 or herring bones for dinner, and three or four spoonfuls 
 of gruel for supper. But then, this gruel is no longer 
 given, and they are trying to make the dinner soup last 
 for both dinner and supper. This is all the nourishment 
 there is. Such is the regime of gradual death by starva- 
 tion established by you for your prisoners. 
 
 You will perhaps point to the critical food situation 
 all over soviet Russia, and you might say that the food 
 committees are not in a position to allot from their sup- 
 plies any more for the feeding of socialists languishing 
 in communist prisons.
 
 70 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 But it is not for the food shortage of soviet Russia 
 that the Yaroslav hunger torture can be explained away. 
 Were that the case, the organs of your political police 
 would not interfere with the food assistance that we are 
 willing to render the prisoners from the outside. At 
 the cost of tremendous efforts and immense sacrifices the 
 relatives of the prisoners have organized food assistance 
 to be sent to the prison. But permission for these gifts 
 has been hedged in by the special section of your extra- 
 ordinary commission with all kinds of conditions which 
 made it impossible during two months to send more than 
 two relief shipments. An attempt was made to supply 
 the prisoners with money, so as to enable them to order 
 some products permitted in the open market, but the 
 prison authorities accepted only a certain amount which 
 they deemed proper to confiscate right there and then 
 in payment of the damage caused to the prison depart- 
 ment ostensibly by the demonstration of the prisoners 
 at the Butyrski prison. (Although it was proved that 
 none of these prisoners had participated in that outbreak 
 at the Moscow prison.) 
 
 Under these circumstances all efforts to fight the 
 hunger torture have proved futile. 
 
 Now, what is your object in this? 
 
 Do not excuse yourself by claiming ignorance. You 
 know, you can not help knowing, what is going on, to 
 the glory of your name, in Yaroslav. It has been dis- 
 cussed with the president of the council of people's com- 
 missaries, Lenin himself, with the chairman of the cen- 
 tral executive committee, Kalinin, and with many others 
 of you. 
 
 By the hands of your henchmen, in your communistic 
 torture-chamber of the Yaroslav central prison, you M^ant 
 to finish secretly and unobserved that which the Tzarist 
 jailers did not manage to complete: in the tortures of 
 death by starvation you want to kill these old champions 
 of socialism and the revolution!
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 71 
 
 What is the cause of all these persecutions? The 
 answer is simple : the continued strength and popularity 
 of the Social-Democratic Party and labor unionists in 
 the cities and of the Social Revolutionary Party of the 
 country. At a recent conference in Moscow, the Soviets' 
 leading authority, Rykov, according to the Krasnaya 
 Gazeta, made the following declaration : 
 
 The workers are discontented with power, for they 
 are hungry and lack clothing. In many of the large 
 factories there are no communists. There results a 
 political weakening of Bolshevism, notwithstanding its 
 strategic successes. It is not possible to create a single 
 economic plan when 80 per cent of the population are 
 peasants who will not allow themselves to be regulated. 
 
 The Social-Democrats elected a majority in the Soviets 
 in many parts of the country and recently secured two- 
 thirds in certain elections in Petrograd. It was this that 
 led Lenin to an even stronger expression than Rykov, 
 when (early in this month of February), he declared, 
 in the Petrograd Pravda, that t( the fight between the 
 labor unionists and the Soviets for supremacy will break 
 up the bolshevist state system unless a settlement is soon 
 reached." The offense of the labor unionists is very 
 clear. They are fundamentally opposed to the so-called 
 government set up by Lenin and his handful of associate 
 dictators. Lenin declares, "they are out for material 
 benefit for themselves at the expense of the general wel- 
 fare of the communist state." Lenin is the sole inter- 
 preter of the welfare of this "proletarian" state; the 
 organized proletariat has no voice.
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 
 
 WORKING men and their organizations suffer not only 
 from the lack of any form of representative government 
 or freedom of press or assemblage, and not only from 
 the persecutions of the Extraordinary Commission, but 
 also from Soviet legislation aimed directly at Labor. 
 
 After a year of syndicalism, factory Soviets and an- 
 archy during which production was reduced to less 
 than one-seventh of its previous level the Soviet "Gov- 
 ernment ' ' in 1919 reversed its industrial policy and began 
 to have recourse to one form after another of labor com- 
 pulsion or enslavement. Compulsion has never, through- 
 out history, produced the same degree of efficiency as 
 freedom, but some of the most extreme disorder was 
 cured and the Bolshevists gave figures to prove that the 
 output of Russian industry had now "risen," though 
 in a few cases only, to as high as two-thirds of its pre- 
 war level a level which was very low indeed in com- 
 parison to that of more advanced countries. 
 
 The first completed plan of labor compulsion was that 
 devised by the "Code of Labor Laws." Some of the 
 principal clauses of this slave code, as it was published 
 in the official organ of the Soviet "Embassy" in America, 
 called Soviet Russia, on February 21, 1920, were as 
 follows : 
 
 72
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 73 
 
 The assignment of wage earners to work shall be 
 carried out through the Departments of Labor Distribu- 
 tion. 
 
 In case of urgent public work the District Depart- 
 ment of Labor may, in agreement with the respective 
 professional unions and with the approval of the Peo- 
 ple's Commissariat of Labor, order the transfer of a 
 whole group of wage earners from the organization where 
 they are employed to another situated in the same or 
 in a different locality, provided a sufficient number of 
 volunteers for such work cannot be found. 
 
 The production standards of output adopted by 
 the valuation commission must be approved by the 
 proper Department of Labor jointly with the Council 
 of National Economy. 
 
 The Supreme Council of National Economy jointly 
 with the People's Commissariat of Labor may direct 
 a general increase or decrease of the standards of 
 efficiency and output for all wage earners and for all 
 enterprises, establishments and institutions of a given 
 district. 
 
 The Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 
 the real Soviet Government, which took place a few 
 weeks later (in April, 1920), attempted to give reasons 
 for the new coercion plans. The chief arguments used 
 were these: 
 
 The Ninth Congress approves of the Central Com- 
 mittee of the Russian Communist Party on the mobiliza- 
 tion of industrial proletariat, compulsory labour service, 
 militarisation of production and the application of mili- 
 tary detachments to economic needs. 
 
 In connection with the above, the Congress decrees 
 that the Party organisation should in every way assist 
 the Trade Unions and the Labour Sections in registering
 
 74 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 all skilled workers with a view of employing them in 
 the various branches of the production with the same 
 consistency and strictness as was done, and is being 
 carried out to the present time, with regard to the com- 
 manding staff for army needs. . . . 
 
 Every social system, whether based on slavery, feudal- 
 ism, or capitalism, had its ways and means of labour 
 compulsion and labour education in the interests of the 
 exploiters. 
 
 The Soviet system is faced with the task of developing 
 its own methods of labour compulsion to attain an increase 
 of the intensity and wholesomeness of labour; this 
 method is to be based on the socialisation of public 
 economy in the interests of the whole nation. 
 
 In addition to the propaganda by which the people 
 are to be influenced and the repressions which are to 
 be applied to all idlers, parasites, and disorganisers who 
 strive to undermine public zeal the principal method 
 for the increase of production will become the introduc- 
 tion of the system of labour. . . . 
 
 Owing to the fact that a considerable part of the 
 workers, either in search of better food conditions or 
 often for purposes of speculation, voluntarily leave their 
 places of employment or change from place to place, 
 which inevitably harms production and deteriorates the 
 general position of the working class, the Congress con- 
 siders one of the most important problems of Soviet 
 Government and of the Trade Union organisation to be 
 established is the firm, systematic, and insistent struggle 
 with labour desertion. The way to fight this is to publish 
 a list of desertion fines, the creation of a Labour Detach- 
 ment of Deserters under fine, and, finally, internment 
 in concentration camps. 
 
 A resolution was also adopted which still more clearly 
 defined the nature of the new enslavement and pointed 
 out the "necessity" for using the same punishments for
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 75 
 
 labor desertion as those employed in cases of military 
 desertion : 
 
 The organisations of the Party must assist in every 
 way the Trade Unions and labour departments in 
 registering skilled workers for the purpose of employing 
 them in productive labour on the same principles and 
 with the same severity as are adopted with regard to 
 officers mobilized for the requirements of the army. 
 
 The officers' families, it may be recalled, are held as 
 hostages for their good behavior. 
 
 If we wish to get a picture of how this industrial 
 mobilization or militarisation works out in practice we 
 can refer to the report presented to the International 
 Federation of Trade Unions late in 1920 by represen- 
 tatives of the Russian Metal Workers Union. 
 
 Militarisation means a complete and absolute subjec- 
 tion of the workmen to the work's management. It em- 
 bodies a number of stern measures, also restriction of 
 leaves and cruel suppression of strikes. 
 
 In order to show to what extent militarisation is car- 
 ried out in the metal industry we quote below an extract 
 from an article, which appeared in the XIII issue of 
 the journal "Metallist" in August, 1920, and was con- 
 tributed by a Communist worker, Khronin: "Absolute 
 submission to the director has been introduced at these 
 works (Plow works of Kostroma) ; neither interference 
 nor contradiction on the part of the workmen are 
 tolerated. The instructions given by the works com- 
 mittee are in accordance with the instructions of the 
 Works' Management. At our works absence without 
 permission of the foreman means suspension of the extra 
 ration. Refusal to work overtime also means suspension 
 of ration. Whereas an obstinate refusal means arrest.
 
 76 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 For being late at work a fine of two weeks' wages is 
 imposed. ' ' 
 
 When the Bolsheviks came into power they abolished 
 overtime work in all branches of industry. But as the 
 output was decreasing in an alarming way and as many 
 skilled workmen went to the villages the Soviet Govern- 
 ment, as far back as the beginning of 1920, reintroduced 
 overtime work. At first it was optional, but in the 
 summer of this year it was announced that overtime is 
 compulsory. 
 
 At a secret meeting on the 5th of September, 1920, the 
 representatives of the Petrograd Labour Organizations 
 adopted the following resolution: "Never before has 
 overtime work been practised so widely as now ; the worst 
 of it is that more than 80% of the overtime is com- 
 pulsory and any refusal on the part of the workmen 
 is severely punished." 
 
 Overtime work is remunerated as follows : for the first 
 two hours double pay ; for the second two hours time 
 and a half. 
 
 The normal working day is 8 hours and 44 hours per 
 week, but owing to compulsory overtime the Russian 
 metal worker works now 12 hours a day, and 72 hours a 
 week. Sometimes compulsory work is performed on 
 Sundays, which makes 80 hours per week. 
 
 The workmen, far from being pleased with these 
 methods, resist them, and as a result a wave of strikes 
 passed all over Soviet Russia in 1920. 
 
 There is little known in Europe about these strikes 
 or the measures taken to suppress them, as the Bolshevik 
 Government which controls all papers and journals, does 
 not allow this information to appear in the press. But 
 in official documents we find the following information 
 (Central Committee of Statistics of the Commissariat of 
 Labour). 
 
 During the first six months of 1920 : 
 . 1. Strikes have been called in 77% of the large and 
 middle sized works.
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 77 
 
 2. In nationalized undertakings strikes are continuous 
 and 90% of them are called at such factories and works. 
 
 As a part of the system of Labor compulsion absolute 
 dictators have been placed over the factories with the 
 power of life and death. Schliapnikoff, Chief Commissar 
 of Labor, printed the following explanation in the Rus- 
 sian Bolshevist press on November 13, 1919 : 
 
 All those circumstances (a total absence of order and 
 discipline in the factories) put together have compelled 
 us to abolish the Working Men's Councils and to place 
 at the head of the most important concerns special 
 " dictators, " with unlimited powers and entitled to dis- 
 pose of the life and death of the workmen. 
 
 The ' ' Code of Labor Laws ' ' was by no means the last 
 experiment in methods of enslavement, Trotzky follow- 
 ing this up with the plan for utilizing the thousands 
 of conscripts of the Red Army for purposes of labor, 
 thus going back to the military slavery of ancient Egypt 
 and Peru. 
 
 Lenin and Trotzky have freely expended their rhetor- 
 ical and propaganda talents to justify the new slavery, 
 not as a temporary expedient but as resting upon the 
 permanent principles of Sovietism. In his booklet "The 
 State and the Revolution" (pages 51 and 67) Lenin 
 says: 
 
 We want the Socialist revolution with human nature 
 as it is now; human nature itself cannot do without 
 subordination. There must be submission to the armed 
 vanguard of the proletariat. 
 
 Until people grow accustomed to observing the elemen- 
 tary conditions of social existence without force and
 
 78 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 without subjection there must be suppression, and it is 
 clear that where there is suppression there must also be 
 violence and there cannot be liberty or democracy. 
 
 This reasoning on the surface means that no peoples 
 are ready for liberty or democracy, and as there must 
 be some form of dictatorship, why not the dictatorship 
 of Lenin and his Party? But under the surface is also 
 the shrewd calculation, evident throughout the Soviet 
 leader's statements, that the Russian masses, being accus- 
 tomed to merciless repression and subjection will finally 
 give up hope of self-government and submit to the 
 Soviet's rule if the Bolshevists can remain a few years 
 longer in the saddle. 
 
 In his official report to the Soviet Economic Confer- 
 ence in January, 1920, Lenin frankly justified the rule 
 of a minority of the city workers, which he calls the 
 conscious "vanguard," over the majority of the city 
 workers as well as the peasants who constitute 90 per 
 cent of the population and it is to be an arbitrary 
 personal rule like that of the army. Here is what he 
 said: 
 
 In the organization of the army we have passed from 
 the principle of command by committee to the direct 
 command of the chiefs. We must do the same in the 
 organization of Government and industry. 
 
 Through committee power and its development we 
 have arrived at autocracy, but it does not give that 
 rapidity to our work which is required by the situation. 
 In the autocracy of the chiefs of Communism and the 
 Communist domination of the people lies the pledge of 
 our success.
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 79 
 
 So in speaking of the new compulsory labor armies 
 'under military discipline Trotzky said at the same con- 
 gress: 
 
 This is but the beginning of our work. There will 
 J)e many drawbacks at first, much will have to be altered, 
 but the basis itself cannot be unsound, as it is the same 
 as that on which our entire Soviet structure is founded 
 (i.e., this is not a temporary military expedient). 
 
 As to the workmen, Trotzky said: 
 
 All artisans will be sent into the works and trans- 
 ferred from one place to another, according to the in- 
 dications of the Government. We will have no pity 
 for the peasants; we will make labor armies of them, 
 with military discipline and Communists as their chiefs. 
 These armies will go forth among the peasants to gather 
 corn, meat and fish that the work of the workmen may 
 be assured. 
 
 The Soviet scheme of compulsory labor is being ap- 
 plied on such a broad scale and is so boldly presented 
 as a "proletarian" scheme that it constitutes the gravest 
 danger that has confronted labor for centuries. It is 
 undoubtedly destined to become historic. It is therefore 
 well worth while to present at somewhat greater length 
 the extraordinary reasoning by which Trotzky and 
 Lenin seek to defend it. The first full justification was 
 presented by Trotzky to the Communist Party Congress 
 in March, 1920, and was published in the official Soviet 
 organ of Moscow on the 21st. Its most important points 
 are perhaps the following: 
 
 At the present time the militarization of labor is all 
 the more needed in that we have now come to the
 
 80 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 mobilization of peasants as the means of solving the 
 problems requiring mass action. We are mobilizing the 
 peasants and forming them into labor detachments which 
 very closely resemble military detachments. 
 
 Some of our comrades say, however, that even though 
 in the case of the working power of mobilized peasantry 
 it is necessary to apply militarization, a military ap- 
 paratus need not be created when the question involves 
 skilled labor and industry because there we have profes- 
 sional (labor) unions performing the function of or- 
 ganizing labor. This opinion, however, is erroneous. . . . 
 
 We have in the most important branches of our in- 
 dustry more than a million workmen on the lists, but 
 not more than eight hundred thousand of them are 
 actually working, and where are the remainder? They 
 have gone to the villages or to other divisions of indus- 
 try or into speculation. Among soldiers this is called 
 desertion, and, in one form or another, the measures 
 used to compel soldiers to do their duty should be applied 
 in the field of labor. 
 
 Under a unified system of economy the masses of 
 workmen should be moved about, ordered and sent from 
 place to place in exactly the same manner as soldiers. 
 This is the foundation of the militarization of labor, and 
 without this we are unable to speak seriously of any 
 organization of industry on a new basis in the conditions 
 of starvation and disorganization existing today. 
 
 In the period of transition in the organization of labor 
 compulsion plays a very important part. The statement 
 that free labor, namely, freely employed labor, produces 
 more than labor under compulsion is correct only when 
 applied to feudalistic and bourgeois orders of society. 
 
 Later in the year in an article republished by the 
 official Bolshevist organ in America, Soviet Russia, 
 Trotzky explains at length that compulsory labor is the 
 backbone of Soviet communism. According to Trotzky
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 81 
 
 Russia is in a period of transition to communist socialism 
 which must last many years. He says : 
 
 The transition to socialism means the transition from 
 a rudimentary distribution of labor power (by the play 
 of purchase and sale, by movement of market and labor 
 wages) to a planful distribution of workers through the 
 economic organs of the district, of the province, of the 
 entire country. Such a planful distribution presupposes 
 the subordination of those to be distributed to the 
 economic plan of the state. This is the essence of labor 
 duty, which unquestionably is contained as a fundamen- 
 tal element in the program of the socialist organization 
 of labor. 
 
 The carrying out of obligatory labor is inconceivable 
 without an application of the methods of the militariza- 
 tion of labor in greater or less measure. 
 
 Why do we speak of a militarization? Of course this 
 is only an analogy. But it is a very pregnant analogy. 
 No other social organization, with the exception of the 
 army, has ever considered itself justified to subordinate 
 citizens to such an extent, to develop them on all sides 
 ~by the application of its will as the state of the pro- 
 letarian dictatorship is doing and considers itself jus- 
 tified in doing. 
 
 Trotzky asserts that compulsory labor is the very 
 foundation of the Soviet State and that it will have to 
 remain the basis until the coming generation through 
 compulsion, terror, and the Bolshevist press and school 
 monopoly (which Trotzky calls education) has converted 
 the population into communism. This is the view ex- 
 pressed in the "theses" which he presented to the Eco- 
 nomic Congress on January 24, 1920. One of these 
 "theses" is the following:
 
 82 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS' 
 
 In building up a society upon the remains of a very 
 much confused and disorganized industry, transition to 
 a systematic basis is inconceivable without the applica- 
 tion of compulsory measures relating to the backward 
 elements of the peasantry and working class. The means 
 of compulsion at the disposal of the state form its mili- 
 tary power. Consequently, the organization of work on 
 a military basis, in some form or other, is an uncondi- 
 tional necessity for every society which is built upon 
 the principle of compulsory labof. 
 
 Compulsory measures will be less and less needed as 
 the system of socialization of industry develops, and the 
 conditions of labor become more favorable, and as the 
 educational level of the coming generation is raised. 
 
 Noteworthy in this "thesis" is the fact that any ele- 
 ment of the working class which the communists may 
 be pleased to designate as "backward" is to be treated 
 the same as the Russian agriculturists or peasants, i.e., 
 the same as the outlawed "bourgeois." 
 
 By such arguments Trotzky defends also the introduc- 
 tion of the Taylor system, bonuses, etc. : 
 
 "Therefore wages for labor," he continues, "both in 
 the form of money and in that of commodities, must be 
 made to coincide as far as possible with the productivity 
 of the individual laborer. Under capitalism, piece work 
 and agreements for pay, application of the Taylor 
 methods, etc., had the object of increasing the exploita- 
 tion of the workers by squeezing out a surplus profit. 
 In socialist production, pay for piece work, premiums, 
 have the object of increasing the social production and 
 with it also the general well-being." 
 
 Yet one of the slogans by which the Bolshevists tricked 
 labor into that measure of support they needed to get
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 83 
 
 themselves into power was precisely the abolition of the 
 bonus system. In November, 1917, Lenin said: ''The 
 bonus system is a heritage of the capitalistic regime and 
 we repudiate it." And now we see the bonus system 
 not only restored but established in places where it did 
 not exist before. 
 
 Another promise to labor by which the Bolshevists 
 were helped into power was a shorter working day. Now 
 they have made long hours and Sunday work compul- 
 sory: 
 
 Our workday lasts twelve hours. "We are compelled 
 to work in two shifts in the paper department of our 
 factory, and we are forced to work both Saturdays and 
 Sundays. No exception is made with regard to women. 
 Since August 15, overtime work has become compulsory. 
 (Resolution of Petrograd government printing office 
 workers. ) 
 
 No leave of absence is to be granted to the workers. 
 Failure to do overtime work is punishable, the first time 
 by forfeiture of food allowance, and the second time by 
 court action. Lateness of ten minutes on the job will 
 be fined with loss of a day's pay. (From an order of 
 the Petrograd government printing office, signed by 
 Manager Forst, August, 1920.) 
 
 A report at the Russian Trade Union Congress of 
 1920 declared that the flight to the villages was so great 
 that the proletariat was disappearing, melting away. 
 Surely a rather serious state of affairs under the ' ' dicta- 
 torship of the proletariat I" The official representative 
 of the Petrograd labor unions in one of their resolutions 
 declared :
 
 84 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 We feel as if we were hard labor convicts, where every- 
 thing but our feeding has been made subject to iron 
 rules. We have become lost as human beings, and have 
 been turned into slaves. (Resolution of Petrograd 
 workers of September 5, 1920.) 
 
 It must not be supposed that the arguments of Lenin 
 differ from those of Trotzky on this fundamental point. 
 The American organ Soviet Russia declares that 
 Soviet Russia is "the property of the producers" and 
 "every worker belongs to Soviet Russia." No more ab- 
 solute abandonment of individual liberty has ever been 
 seen in print. Soviet Russia then proceeds to justify 
 itself by reproducing the following article from the pen 
 of Lenin, who differs from Trotzky only in the proposi- 
 tion that methods of compulsion will have to be con- 
 tinued not for one but for many generations: 
 
 Communist labor, in the strictest sense of the word, 
 is the voluntary labor of future society, performed with- 
 out pay, not as a definite duty, not in order to obtain 
 the right to a share of production, and not according 
 to rigid rules. It is labor performed freely, bound by 
 no rule, without regard to compensation, and not with 
 an eye to any reward. It is labor performed as a habit, 
 for the common good, and with the realization of its 
 necessity (which will also become a habit), in order to 
 provide for the needs of society. 
 
 It is clear to every one that we, and this means our 
 society, must advance very far indeed before labor of 
 this kind can be realized in our social order. 
 
 To build up a new labor discipline, to create new forms 
 of social relations, to find new methods of drawing people 
 to work this is a task of many generations. It is the 
 supreme task. . . ,
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 85 
 
 To succeed in great things, we mnst begin in little 
 things. And even after the "great" thing the over- 
 throw of the state, whereby capitalism is destroyed and 
 power is transferred to the proletariat the formation 
 of industrial life on a new basis must start with the 
 little things. Communist Saturdays, industrial armies, 
 compulsory labor these are various forms of the prac- 
 tical working out of Socialist labor. 
 
 A radical American Socialist, Albert Boni (formerly 
 of the publishing firm of Boni and Liveright) who has 
 just returned from several months in Soviet Russia has 
 given us, in the New York Globe, a pro-Soviet news- 
 paper, the following unforgettable picture of the new 
 slavery. 
 
 The industrial collapse of Russia brings not merely 
 a problem of technical reorganization, replacement of 
 machinery and supplying raw materials and motive 
 power. The Communist party is facing a situation in 
 which the laboring classes, in whose behalf, supposedly, 
 the Communist party is working, are proving themselves 
 not only unwilling, but unable to endure the hardships 
 and suffering that industrial disorganization has imposed 
 upon them. In the face of impossible living conditions, 
 the workers are abandoning the cities for the country 
 and its more certain existence. 
 
 To meet the dearth of man-power, the Russian govern- 
 ment decreed that every male over sixteen years of age 
 must labor at such tasks as the state may assign. Labor 
 books, showing that this obligation is being fulfilled, have 
 been issued to all citizens, replacing passports and all 
 other identification papers. 
 
 Wherever plans of the central government meet with 
 opposition they have one resort that never fails military 
 force and the terror imposed by the extraordinary com- 
 mission. But the peasants are already in a state of too
 
 86 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 great restlessness to permit of forcible measures over 
 wide stretches of territory without great risks of serious 
 consequences. Conscription of labor is going forward 
 very slowly, and only where the Communist forces are 
 gathered in such strength that resistance is rendered 
 impossible. 
 
 The Russian laborer is held tied to his shop as closely 
 as any feudal serf was bound to the land of Ids lord. 
 Transfer of employees from one factory to another is 
 possible only with the consent of the shop directorate. 
 Travel beyond a radius of twenty-five miles is possible 
 only with the consent of the local representatives of the 
 extraordinary commission, which permission is granted 
 only upon the request of the factory executive. Deser- 
 tion from factories is punishable by reduction of food 
 ration, and, if repeated, by arrest and internment in 
 concentration camps. Some of the most important plants 
 are being operated like military encampments, workers' 
 quarters having been erected upon the grounds. There 
 the employees are held under armed guards and require 
 special passes to enter and to leave. 
 
 Military discipline has been introduced in all works. 
 Fines are imposed for workers arriving late, heavy 
 punishments are exacted from those failing to appear 
 unless satisfactory justification of their absence is forth- 
 coming. Factories are again placed under individual 
 control with dictatorial power in directorates' hands 
 over conditions of work. Overtime is demanded as re- 
 quired. Piece work, premiums, the Taylor system, all 
 possible methods are introduced to speed up the ex- 
 hausted worker. In each factory are representatives of 
 the extraordinary commission reporting all cases of dis- 
 content and mischief makers are dealt with severely. 
 Strikes are absolutely forbidden, and any attempts to 
 organize the workers to resist the imposition of new 
 demands are called counter-revolutionary activities for 
 which long-term imprisonment is the lightest possible 
 punishment.
 
 SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 87 
 
 As far as is possible under that ruthless tyranny the 
 organized labor of Russia is everywhere in a state of 
 full revolt. The organized workers are doing what they 
 can to reach the hearts and minds of laboring humanity 
 in all countries, but they are working against overwhelm- 
 ing obstacles the refusal of the bread card, which means 
 immediate starvation for their families, the firing squad, 
 death by torture in prisons. It is difficult for them 
 even to speak, and a decree especially forbidding speeches 
 at labor union meetings has been issued. Martoff, the 
 world-renowned leader of the Social-Democratic Party, 
 has described a special decree prohibiting under 
 threat of the revolutionary tribunal speeches at work- 
 men's meetings without special permission from the Mos- 
 cow authorities. Martoff says that since the decree was 
 issued not a single social-democrat has obtained this per- 
 mission. Another decree calls for the compulsory at- 
 tendance of workmen at meetings at which the benefits 
 of Soviet rule are expounded, time being paid for attend- 
 ance!
 
 THE PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR: 
 TRADE UNIONS 
 
 IN Soviet Russia the Bolshevists are using many words 
 with a new meaning. It has been shown how they 
 sometimes employ the word "democracy" to mean the 
 reverse of what all civilized peoples and all the labor 
 movements of the world have hitherto meant by the 
 word. So also, after abolishing all the rights of labor 
 and labor organizations and of cooperatives the Bol- 
 shevists, nevertheless, continue to apply the terms "trade 
 unions" and "cooperatives" to the empty shells that 
 remain. 
 
 In Soviet Russia (April 2, 1921) we read: "The 
 trade unions have been practically transformed into 
 organs of the Soviet Government. Membership in the 
 trade unions is now compulsory for Russian workers." 
 Never before has the term "trade union" been applied 
 to a compulsory state organization. "We shall show below 
 that even the Bolshevists themselves are divided as to 
 whether they shall now regard all the seven million 
 industrial, governmental and agricultural workers whom 
 they seek to classify as the "proletariat" as being mem- 
 bers of the trade unions or not. It is conceded that a 
 large part of these people do not realize that they are 
 members of trade unions and do not even pay dues. In 
 fact, the dues seem to be paid by the Government, as we 
 
 88
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 89 
 
 may see from the following Moscow wireless sent out 
 in December, 1920, to trade union officials throughout 
 Russia : 
 
 In compliance with the decision of the 8th Congress 
 financial accounts must be rendered every month. The 
 majority of Government Trade Union Soviets at present 
 do not render any such accounts. The Central Soviet 
 of Trade Unions begs to inform all Government Soviets 
 of trade unions that unless they send in monthly 
 accounts dating from October 30th in compliance with 
 regulations, they will receive no funds. The decision 
 of the People's Commissariat. 
 
 Also these "trade unions" do not have the right to 
 strike or to propose a change in the form of government. 
 They may elect their own officials if the officials elected 
 meet the approval of the Communist Party, otherwise 
 the officials are "appointed." 
 
 In his report to the party printed (See Krasnaya 
 Gazeta) January 11, 1921, Zinoviev declared: 
 
 At the present moment we have 24 trade unions, 
 counting in their ranks 6,970,000 members. But the 
 larger portion of these members have been ascribed to 
 the unions mechanically. 
 
 Only a minority, at the very best, half a million, are 
 members of the party. 
 
 If we recall the fact that only 70,000 industrial 
 workers are listed by the Communist Party itself as 
 party members, we see that Zinoviev 's estimate of com- 
 munist trade unionists is indeed high as he confesses. 
 The British Labor Delegation to Soviet Russia reports
 
 90 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 an entirely different number even of "mechanically 
 ascribed" so-called "trade unionists." They say: 
 
 It was put to us that the Communist Party, number- 
 ing 600,000 members, could be likened to a small cog- 
 wheel which turns a larger cog-wheel representing the 
 Trade Union movement numbering 4,500,000 members. 
 This in turn revolves the great wheel of Russia's indus- 
 trial and agricultural system. 
 
 Whether the number of workers labeled "trade union- 
 ists" by the Soviet Government is 4,500,000 or 7,000,000, 
 whether the number of party members among them is 
 100,000 or 500,000, it may be seen that the proportion 
 of Communists is not higher than one-ninth, and prob- 
 ably very much less. 
 
 According to Zorin's official report, on June 1, 1920, 
 out of the 29,000 railroad workers of the Petrograd 
 district only 895 were Communists, while of 5,000 em- 
 ployed in the water, gas and electric works only 145 
 were Communists that is three per cent in each instance. 
 
 The decisions of the Communist Party do not leave 
 any doubt about the place of these so-called "trade 
 unions" in the Soviet State. The party congress in 
 April, 1920, was very explicit on the subject, as we may 
 see from the following decisions : 
 
 The Trade Unions and the Soviet State. 
 
 The Soviet State is the widest imaginable form of 
 Labour Organisation which is actually realising the con- 
 struction of Communism, constantly attracting to this 
 work ever-growing masses of the peasantry. On the other 
 hand, the Soviet State represents Labour Organisation 
 which has at its disposal all the material means of com-
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 91 
 
 pulsion. In the present form of Proletarian Dictator- 
 ship, the Soviet State is the lever of the economic coup 
 d'etat. There is, therefore, no question of opposing the 
 organs of the Soviet Government. 
 
 Politics may be said to be the most concentrated 
 expression of the generalisation and completion of 
 economics. Therefore, any antagonism of the economic 
 organisation of the working-class known as the Trade 
 Unions towards its political organisation i.e., the Soviets 
 is an absurdity and is deviating from Marxism to- 
 wards bourgeois ideas and particularly towards bourgeois 
 Trade Union prejudices. This kind of antagonism is 
 still more harmful and absurd during the epoch of 
 Proletarian Dictatorship when all the struggle of the 
 proletariat and the whole of its political and economical 
 activity should more than ever be concentrated, united 
 and directed by one single will and bound by an iron 
 unity. 
 
 The Trade Unions and the Communist Party. 
 
 The Communist Party is the leading organisation of 
 the working-class, the guide of the Proletarian Move- 
 ment and of the struggle for the establishment of the 
 Communist system. 
 
 It is therefore necessary that every Trade Union 
 should possess a strictly disciplined organised fraction 
 of the Communist Party. Every fraction of the Party 
 represents a section of the local organisation which is 
 under the control of the Party Committee, whilst frac- 
 tions of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions 
 are under the control of the Central Committee of the 
 Russian Communist Party. 
 
 Under such a regulation it was natural that even the 
 hollow shells of "trade unions" should almost cease to 
 exist, and it seems that an accusation to this effect was 
 actually made by Trotzky at a meeting reported in
 
 92 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Izvestia January 1, 1921, as we may see from the follow- 
 ing remarks by Zinoviev: 
 
 Many people say that the Professional Unions just 
 at present are suffering a grave crisis, and even that 
 our Unions are on the brink of ruin. Comrade Trotzky 
 began with this point. No one can say that our Unions 
 are in a satisfying shape. On the contrary the apparatus 
 of the Unions is very weak, and will remain weak as 
 long as their financial support is as small as at present. 
 
 And is it true in fact, what comrade Trotzky said: 
 "Where are the Professional Unions, they are doing 
 nothing, they have no foundation." The Professional 
 Unions are weak owing to the civil war and to lack 
 of attention, but is it really true, that they do not exist T 
 
 For such "trade unions" to strike is not only against 
 the law; it is regarded as treason or desertion, and it 
 may be punished as such. For example, the Moscow 
 Soviet, as reported in Izvestia of July 2, 1918, resolved : 
 
 As from now, the organised forces of the proletariat, 
 the trades unions (professional associations) will be 
 under the management of the Council of National 
 Economy, which will organise the management and 
 production of industrial enterprises. Under these new 
 methods of management, the workers will see to dis- 
 cipline and the increase of productivity, and will end 
 the economic disorganisation. Under these conditions 
 every stoppage of work and all strikes will be an act 
 of treason to the proletarian revolution. 
 
 A picture of the practical workings of this kind of 
 "trade unionism" was given to the British Labor Dele- 
 gation in Moscow by one of the officers of the Printers' 
 Union, A. Kefali, on May 23, 1920. We quote a few
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 93 
 
 sentences only from this extremely interesting and im- 
 portant speech which the printers assert led to the 
 imprisonment of all the chief officers of the union: 
 
 One may exhibit a sitting of the Moscow Soviet, con- 
 sisting exclusively of Communists; one may show a sit- 
 ting of the Russian Central Board of Trade Unions, 
 consisting exclusively of Communists, but one cannot 
 show a single free workmen's meeting that will have a 
 Communist majority. 
 
 Here are thousands of Moscow printers, behind whom 
 stand scores of thousands of Moscow and other Russian 
 workmen who, at the epoch of the Russian Revolution, 
 under a government that calls itself a workmen's govern- 
 ment a government realising its socialistic programme, 
 a government calling Socialism to life, a government 
 annihilating the parasitic classes those thousands of 
 Moscow printers, I say, and behind them scores and 
 hundreds of thousands of Russian workmen, have all of 
 them under this government no right to vote, no right 
 to assemble, no right to print. As in the time of the 
 Czar's government, the printers are forced to print, not 
 their own thoughts, but calumnies against themselves. 
 
 Communists sometimes use menaces of arrests against 
 the workers to oblige them to leave their posts in the 
 board of the Union voluntarily, and in practice this 
 often happens. Sometimes they do it otherwise; they 
 say that if a Communist is not elected to the Board or 
 Factory Workers' Committee, they, the Communists, 
 will arrange things so that their workers will receive 
 less food and other necessary things. And sometimes 
 this produces its effect. This affirmation can be verified 
 in a series of factories in Moscow. 
 
 When such means have no result, the Communists let 
 the local Soviets or the Central Council of Trade Unions 
 dissolve the Board of the Trade Unions; such was the 
 case with the first Central Board of the Printers' Union.
 
 M OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The militarization and coercion of labor has proceeded 
 so far as to lead to a movement of revolt even within 
 these governmental "trade unions" and within the Com- 
 munist Party itself. The revolt began as a reaction 
 against the extreme violence of the head of the Red 
 Army, Trotzky. We take the following from the friendly 
 New Statesman of London; it is amply supported by 
 Soviet documents: 
 
 It is well known that early in 1920 Trotsky made an 
 attempt to militarise industry by transforming a few 
 of the Red armies into labor battalions. 
 
 At first these "Labor armies" aroused much hope and 
 were greatly advertised by the Communists as the last 
 word in a reconstruction crusade, but they soon proved 
 an utter failure. 
 
 Only 20-24 per cent, of the soldiers actually did any 
 work and that in a wasteful and grossly unproductive 
 way. The rest were occupied in supplying them and 
 in preserving the military character of the institution. 
 
 After a short period of enthusiasm and exaltation, the 
 experiment was recognized as a wasteful delusion, and 
 the Polish attack made an end of it before its folly 
 became too obvious. 
 
 Trotsky, however, did not give up the idea of apply- 
 ing military methods to industry. As the Acting Com- 
 missar for Transport, in the absence of Krassin, he 
 introduced military discipline on the railways. 
 
 Commissars, revolutionary tribunals, political intelli- 
 gence and supervision replaced ordinary methods of 
 management. 
 
 Elections, even of a limited scope and under pressure, 
 which are still tolerated in other unions, were completely 
 abolished, all officers of the Railway Union being ap- 
 pointed by the Chief Commissar. 
 
 All this could be tolerated during the war, because 
 the railways were justly considered a part of the war
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 95 
 
 machine, but with the war over, the railwaymen began 
 to protest against military management. 
 
 Other unions, too, raised their voice against the per- 
 manent militarization of the railways. 
 
 At the beginning of November (1920) the Conference 
 of Trade Unions passed a resolution which recommended 
 "the most energetic and systematic struggle against cen- 
 tralism, militarization, bureaucratism as well as auto- 
 cratic and minute tutelage of the workers ' unions. ' ' 
 
 The conference expressed also its conviction that "it 
 is high time for the Railway Union to abolish military 
 methods and return to ordinary proletarian democracy 
 within the union." 
 
 But Trotsky the head of the union ignored the 
 decision of the conference. Pointing out the manifest 
 improvement of the transport under his management, 
 he started a campaign for the adoption of military 
 methods all round as the basis for a new efficiency in 
 industry. 
 
 Far from denying his action in appointing the chiefs 
 of the railway unions, Trotzky defended it at the con- 
 gress of the transport workers. His speech is quoted in 
 the New York Call of January 14, 1921, as follows : 
 
 Now as to the question of appointees. Is it right, as 
 the State has said, that it was necessary to change the 
 head official of the union ? Rightly or wrongly we have 
 intervened. . . . 
 
 The union was not suited to the revolutionary demands 
 of the working-class, and our faction waged a merciless 
 internal struggle and put its own men everywhere. . . . 
 
 And so the working-class, in the persons of its political 
 representatives, says: Here we interfere; we are going 
 to narrow this period of struggle between the two 
 groups ; we economize ; we diminish ; we order. To deny 
 the principle of intervention is to deny that we live in 
 a workers' state.
 
 96 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 At the congress of the trade unions held early in 1921, 
 Trotzky declared : ' ' It will be necessary to reorganize the 
 unions without delay, that is, first of all to shift the 
 personnel of the more responsible positions." In other 
 words, he proposed to apply generally the system of 
 appointment of labor union officials by the Communist 
 Party which he had already instituted on the railways. 
 The name he gave to this policy was: "democracy in 
 the matter of production." Even Lenin himself at this 
 meeting made fun of this strange perversion of language 
 although it is entirely typical of the usual Bolshevist 
 inversions in the use of words. Lenin declared that 
 Trotzky 's plan was merely an increase of " bureau- 
 cratism." (From report of the All-Russian Conference 
 of Professional or Labor Unions, Pravda, January 13, 
 1921.) 
 
 Lenin accused Trotzky of lack of tact in discussing 
 these matters in public. Lenin's own methods are more 
 secretive. He believes that the all-powerful Communist 
 Party, aided by the Red Terror and the Extraordinary 
 Commission, can secure the "election" of "trade union" 
 officials by the methods hitherto employed. What these 
 methods are we can see from a passage already quoted : 
 
 "We must know how to apply, at need, knavery, deceit, 
 illegal methods, hiding truth by silence, in order to 
 penetrate the very heart of the trade unions, to remain 
 there and to accomplish there the Communist task. 
 (Lenin, in "Radicalism, the Infantile Malady of Com- 
 munism. ' ' ) 
 
 Lenin's "trade union" program, as he declared at 
 the above meeting, is that the unions should be "per-
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 97 
 
 suaded" to institute tribunals in order to increase 
 production for the Soviet Government and punish 
 "labor desertion." (See the previous chapter.) 
 
 Of course, the "trade union" revolt could not amount 
 to much under the Bolshevist rule. Two factions, how- 
 ever, offered a very vigorous resistance and under the 
 Soviet tyranny it is significant that they did manage, 
 after all, to obtain a certain number of votes. This 
 opposition is divided between the faction which proposed 
 to restore the Soviet rule and a so-called Syndicalist 
 faction. Neither of them suggests any concession what- 
 ever to the peasant majority of Russia, but both seem 
 fairly strongly opposed to a continuation of the present 
 Communist Party rule. The New Statesman correctly 
 sums up the opposition of these factions as follows : 
 
 If we consider Trotzky's militarist-bureaucratic pro- 
 posals as the extreme left, then the extreme right is 
 taken up by the group of the "Labor Opposition," 
 headed by Shliapnikov chairman of the Metal Workers' 
 Union the strongest Russian union. 
 
 The "Labor Opposition" demands that the entire 
 economy of the Republic should be taken over by a 
 congress of producers, organized in producers' unions. 
 This is a consistent syndicalist conception, based on the 
 belief that economic matters should be left entirely to 
 labor organizations. 
 
 Bitterly criticizing the bureaucratic tutelage over the 
 unions by the Communist party, the "Labor Opposi- 
 tion" advocates complete self-government in the fac- 
 tories. 
 
 Another faction, headed by Ossinsky and Sapronov, 
 calls itself the group of "Democratic Centralism." This 
 group is one with the "Labor Opposition" in demanding 
 democratic reforms and active participation of the
 
 98 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 unions in the management of industry, but is dead 
 against the syndicalist conception of the Metal Workers' 
 Union. Their chief demand is for the re-establishment 
 of the Soviet Constitution. 
 
 The official Lenin resolution received 336 votes at the 
 conference, Trotzky's resolution 50, and that of the Labor 
 Opposition 18. 
 
 What was the result of this conference? Far from 
 bringing any relaxation of the Communist dictatorship 
 it resulted in putting at the head of the railroads the 
 one man in Russia who is noted as more violent than 
 Trotzky himself, namely, Lenin's right arm, Djerjinsky, 
 chief of the frightful Extraordinary Commission. Such 
 is labor reform and ' ' democratization ' ' in Soviet Russia ! 
 As we read in a dispatch of April 19, 1920 : 
 
 President Djerjinsky of the All-Russian Extraordinary 
 Commission of the People's Commissary of the Interior, 
 who is also Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission 
 for the Improvement of Conditions of Life of the 
 Workers, Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission 
 for the Care of Children and of several other extraor- 
 dinary commissions, has been appointed People's Com- 
 missary of Transport and Communications. The present 
 Commissary, M. Emshanoff, becomes Under Secretary. 
 
 The decree of the Central Executive Committee ex- 
 plicitly announces that Djerjinsky will maintain all his 
 other positions, thus becoming still more powerful. Dur- 
 ing the recent animated discussion of the position of 
 the trade unions, Trotzky was severely criticized for 
 introducing military methods into the management of 
 the railways. Trotzky was obliged to retire as Com- 
 missary of Transport and Emshanoff returned to the 
 normal methods of management only to give way in a
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 99 
 
 few weeks to Djerjinsky, who will introduce on the 
 railways the methods of the Extraordinary Commission. 
 
 No better illustration of the Bolshevist policy towards 
 labor unions could be offered than the picture given in 
 the appeal to the labor world sent out towards the end 
 of 1920 by the Moscow Printers' Union. We reproduce 
 it here in full, with the exception of a few irrelevant 
 sentences : 
 
 Appeal of Moscow Printers' Union 
 
 The Printers ' Union of Moscow is the last trade union 
 organization that has remained faithful to the principles 
 of the independence of the trade unions and their 
 separate existence as a class organization. 
 
 The Moscow Printers' Union defends these principles 
 because a trade union organization can neither subject 
 itself to nor permit itself to be absorbed by the organs 
 of the government under the conditions now existing 
 when private property is not abolished, when the state 
 is the largest if not the only entrepreneur, when the 
 purchase and sale of labor power is completely conserved 
 in a word, when labor's independent and free organs 
 of defense and protection from the pressure of the other 
 classes are indispensable. 
 
 In the domain of labor policy the practice of the 
 Soviet government during the three years of its existence 
 presents a striking example of this idea. 
 
 The Moscow Printers' Union believes that it is ab- 
 solutely necessary to carry on a campaign of discussion 
 amongst the proletariat against the political, economic, 
 and administrative monstrosities practiced by the party 
 in power. 
 
 For taking this position, for conducting this battle 
 of principles, the Communists hate the printers in a 
 manner surpassing even their hatred for the bourgeoisie 
 and the landlords, at present non-existent in Russia.
 
 100 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The Communists extend one hand to such counter- 
 revolutionary leaders as Broussiloff and Goutor, the 
 Czar's chief generals, and with the other hand, loaded 
 with all sorts of extraordinary laws against the socialists, 
 they oppress with all their power a group of proletarians 
 whose sole crime is that they have had the hardihood 
 to refuse to accept the Communist maxims, presented 
 to them ready-made by the party in power. 
 
 The fearlessness of this group, of proletarians reached 
 an insupportable point for the masters of the situation 
 when the representatives of the English workers came 
 to Russia. On this occasion the printers organized a 
 meeting in which hymns of praise in honor of the Com- 
 munist party were not heard but where, on the other 
 hand, the truth respecting actual conditions in Soviet 
 Eussia was openly proclaimed. 
 
 The Communists, outraged by this meeting, imme- 
 diately began to persecute the printers. They shrank 
 from no lie and no calumny in the attainment of their 
 purpose, which was to manufacture a false public opinion 
 preparatory to the vigorous punishment they had de- 
 termined to inflict on the Printers' Union. 
 
 It was not difficult for the Communists to administer 
 this punishment, for the printers, like all the other 
 Eussian workers, are deprived of the possibility of print- 
 ing everything that displeases the Communists. For 
 having printed the resolution adopted by the mass meet- 
 ing in honor of the English comrades, Comrade Zav- 
 charoff was arrested. The Printers' Union was inter- 
 dicted from printing the stenographic report of the 
 meeting. The independent unions were also deprived 
 of their own papers. 
 
 The Communists decided to punish the printers 
 severely, especially because it was impossible for them 
 to oppose the opinion of the workers in other industrial 
 branches to the opinions held by the printers. The party 
 in power would without doubt have met with defeat 
 in a free assembly where the two points of view that
 
 of the Communists and that of the opposition were 
 given a fair field of contest. It was for this reason that 
 the party in power was compelled to have recourse to 
 meetings under the auspices of dissimilar organizations 
 which were nothing but self-styled representatives of 
 the proletariat; real representation has not existed in 
 Kussia for a long time. At these meetings the speakers 
 fulminated against the printers. In this manner the 
 " General conference" of the printers of Petrograd was 
 organized and "unanimously" adopted a withering 
 resolution against the Muscovite printers. 
 
 The value of the "unanimity" of the organized 
 conferences, during which, under the menace of terrible 
 reprisals, the representatives of the proletarian opposi- 
 tion are deprived of the possibility of telling the truth, 
 is well known to every Russian worker. For this reason 
 the government journals lodged the senseless and stupid 
 charge of fomenting strikes against the Printers' Union. 
 The printers have struck less than any other group of 
 workers in Russia, thanks to their firm and solid organ- 
 ization. The workers in many other branches of indus- 
 try, on the contrary, driven by despair, have declared 
 numerous strikes. They saw no other way to improve 
 their conditions. These conditions drove the majority 
 of the Muscovite printers to the same extremity, but 
 the movement was usually arrested by the officials of 
 the Printers' Union. 
 
 For more than a month the Communists fashioned 
 public opinion with the aid of their monopoly. They 
 lied and calumniated without shame. Finally during 
 the night of June 17, they arrested all the members 
 of the administrative committee of the Printers' Union 
 and all other officials of the union holding important 
 positions with the exception of those who had the time 
 to hide themselves. On the morning of June 18 the 
 offices of the union were occupied by a detachment of 
 government troops, and everyone who for any reason 
 whatsover had displeased the Communists was arrested.
 
 102 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 In the meantime the private lodgings of the employees 
 of the union were searched. 
 
 This new act of violence against the working class 
 aroused the indignation of all the printers in Moscow. 
 They understood perfectly that the administrative coun- 
 cil represented the executive organ of all the members 
 of the union, especially because it was elected, contrary 
 to the councils of all the other trade unions and the 
 organs of the government, by universal suffrage. 
 
 Some of the workers struck and demanded the release 
 of the imprisoned trade unionists. The masters of the 
 situation employed against the strikers the same measures 
 that the bouregoisie in every country would like to apply 
 but have never dared to. The strikers were deprived 
 of food. Under present conditions, when the workers 
 are underfed, this was the most rigorous weapon that 
 could be used. At the same time the government placed 
 under arrest the alleged strike leaders. These two meas- 
 ures attained the end desired by the government: the 
 strikers went back to work, and perhaps, under the pres- 
 sure of similar measures, they will soon be even forced 
 to vote resolutions condemning the men who up to the 
 present have been their leaders. But the hatred of the 
 Moscow printers for the authors of this shameless punish- 
 ment will not be lessened thereby; on the contrary, it 
 will increase day by day, and a small amount of free 
 atmosphere would suffice to chase the inquisitors away 
 from the printers. 
 
 In addressing themselves to the international labor 
 movement, the striking printers declare that, crushed 
 by brutal physical force, they appeal to the only force 
 which still preserves for them a moral significance, the 
 moral power of the international labor movement. The 
 striking printers assert that they can demonstrate to 
 the international labor movement that they are right 
 and not the Communists. 
 
 The striking printers declare that the new adminis- 
 .trative council of the Printers' Union, which has been
 
 PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 103 
 
 superimposed upon them by force, has no influence and 
 no authority over the great mass of the workers, whose 
 entire sympathy and friendship, on the contrary, are 
 with those who are in prison, the former officials of the 
 Printers' Union of Moscow. 
 
 Perhaps the Bolshevist government will institute a 
 prosecution similar to the Beillis prosecution so notorious 
 under the Czarist regime, but the only possible judges 
 at present are the Moscow printers and the international 
 socialist movement. 
 
 A judgment rendered by the Communist party would 
 be nothing but a judgment of an interested party, of 
 an adversary who plays the role of a judge in a case 
 involving his political enemies. 
 So much the worse for them. 
 
 But the socialist and labor international will under- 
 stand ! 
 
 The entire working class of Russia believes in the Mos- 
 cow printers ! , 
 
 (Signed) THE MEMBERS OF THE ADMINIS- 
 TRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE 
 PRINTERS' UNION OF Mos- 
 cow. (ELECTED BY UNIVER- 
 SAL SUFFRAGE,)
 
 vn 
 
 THE OPPRESSION OF THE AGRICULTURAL 
 POPULATION 
 
 Now that Soviet Russia has been cut off from Poland 
 and other industrial districts fully 90 per cent of the 
 population is agricultural. The oppression of the 
 agricultural population by the Communists and the Red 
 Army has been even more frightful than the persecution 
 of labor and its political and economic organizations. 
 The Bolshevists have acted towards the agriculturist 
 majority in Russia as towards a conquered people, and 
 expressions acknowledging this relation are frequent 
 throughout Bolshevist official publications. For example, 
 in Losovsky's official pamphlet on the new Red Trade 
 Union Internationale (the so-called International Coun- 
 cil of Trade and Industrial Unions) he refers to the 
 establishment of the Bolshevist rule as "the subjection 
 of the peasants and petty bourgeoisie by the prole- 
 tariat." In a speech quoted in Soviet Russia in 1920 
 Lenin says: 
 
 The petty bourgeois class in Russia was undoubtedly 
 in the majority. The peasantry remained in their pro- 
 duction as property owners and are creating new capi- 
 talistic relations. These are the fundamental traits of 
 our economic situation, and hence originates the unwise 
 talk of equality, freedom and democracy by those who 
 do not understand the actual situation. 
 
 104
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 105 
 
 There is no harmony between the interests of the 
 proletariat and the peasantry. Here the difficulty starts 
 for us. 
 
 Already then there was apparent the necessity of in- 
 dividual administration, of recognition of the dictatorial 
 plenary powers of one person for the carrying out of 
 the Soviet idea ; therefore all manner of talk about equal 
 rights is nonsense. We conduct the class struggle not 
 on the basis of equal rights. The proletariat wins be- 
 cause it consists of hundreds of thousands of disciplined 
 men, who are animated by a uniform will. 
 
 The exact meaning of "the dictatorship of the pro- 
 letariat" was never stated in a more uncompromising 
 form than in Lenin's celebrated speech at the Commu- 
 nist Party Congress (March, 1921) a speech heralded 
 throughout the world by all advocates of friendly rela- 
 tions with the Soviets, as the supreme evidence of 
 compromise with capitalism and surrender to the peas- 
 antry ! We quote a few sentences as given by the official 
 Russian Press Review of March 15th. 
 
 We regard all these events from the point of view of 
 the class struggle. We are not mistaken with regard to 
 the relations between the proletariat and the petty bour- 
 geoisie a most difficult question, which demands com- 
 plicated measures in order to secure the victory of the 
 proletariat, or to be more correct, a whole system of 
 complicated transitional measures. . . . 
 
 What is the meaning of the slogan of "free trade" 
 advanced by the petty-bourgeois elements ? It shows that 
 there are some difficulties in the relations between the 
 proletariat and the small farmer which we have not yet 
 overcome. I refer to the attitude of the proletariat to 
 the small property-holders in a country where the pro- 
 letariat has been victorious and the proletarian revolu-
 
 106 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 tion is developing but where the proletarian makes up 
 the minority of the population and the majority is made 
 up of petty-bourgeois elements. In such a country the 
 proletariat must lead the transition of these petty prop- 
 erty holders into collective and communist labor. This 
 is theoretically beyond any dispute, and on this we based 
 a number of our legislative acts. 
 
 The feature which is peculiar to Russia in the highest 
 degree is that we have here a proletariat making up the 
 minority and a considerable minority at that, of the 
 population, while the overwhelming majority consists 
 of the peasantry. 
 
 That is, the class-struggle still continues in the shape 
 of a class-war between the industrial proletariat and the 
 agricultural population or peasants, regarded as petty 
 bourgeois. The proletariat are the victors in this war 
 in so far as they have conquered the peasants and cap- 
 tured the government. But the war continues because 
 the peasant subjects of the proletariat are the over- 
 whelming majority. These peasants must continue to 
 be excluded from all power, but they must be handed 
 down such economic advantages as are consistent with a 
 continued proletarian dictatorship. And in the mean- 
 while they must be terrorized by frightful punishments 
 against attempting to set up a regime of self-government 
 as Chapter IV amply demonstrates. 
 
 The agriculturists are so few in the Communist Party 
 that they are not usually even listed in the Party sta- 
 tistics. The figures quoted above will show that they 
 do not number more than two or three per cent of that 
 party, that is, not one agriculturist in 10,000 is repre- 
 sented in the organization that governs Russia! 
 
 Having counted out the agriculturist majority com-
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 107 
 
 pletely as factors in the Government and having assigned 
 certain theoretical and "proletarian" reasons for this 
 policy the Communists and Bolshevists in all countries 
 have proceeded to justify themselves by the worst cam- 
 paign of vilification that has ever been directed against 
 any great people. The Russian agriculturists or peasants 
 are described by the Bolshevists and pro-Bolshevist 
 "liberals," such as H. G. "Wells, Brailsford, andBertrand 
 Russell, as if they were almost savages, preferring 
 retrogession to progress in their own business of agricul- 
 ture, illiterate, violent, repudiating all urban industry 
 and all government. There is no foundation whatever 
 for these malicious slanders against this great people. 
 The Russian peasants agriculturally are more advanced 
 than the majority of the agriculturists of southern and 
 eastern Europe. Far from being totally illiterate a large 
 proportion of the male population, often estimated at 
 one-half, are literate. Their great desire, like that of 
 other agriculturists, is for better tools, better stock, more 
 farm machinery and better transportation facilities, and 
 they have shown themselves willing and anxious to make 
 heavy sacrifice for these objects. They proved their 
 political intelligence by electing a solid delegation of 
 intelligent progressives to all the Dumas under the Czar 
 and to the Constitutional Assembly forcibly dissolved 
 by the Bolshevists. Far from displaying hostility to the 
 town population they even have adopted in a vague way 
 in the latter 's aspirations towards a moderate form of 
 state socialism. But during the Bolshevist regime they 
 have got nothing from the cities except Red Army de- 
 tachments which have robbed them of everything loose 
 on their little farms, killed them in large numbers and
 
 108 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 carried away their men as conscripts for the Bolshevist 
 military adventures in Poland, Siberia, the Caucasus 
 and other far away sections. 
 
 To Bertrand Russell Lenin said: "Nothing will do 
 any good except arming the proletariat (that is, that 
 part of the proletariat considered reliable by the Com- 
 munists). Those who believe anything else are social 
 traitors or deluded fools." Asked by the Norwegian 
 Socialist visitor, Friss, "Do you intend then to use the 
 Red Army against the internal enemy ?" Lenin replied: 
 "Yes, of course. What the peasants call a divine right 
 we call high treason." 
 
 Again when referring to the plunder of the peasantry 
 before the British Labor Delegation Lenin laughingly 
 replied that they were being paid for what was being 
 taken in worthless paper money. As quoted by Haden 
 Guest of that delegation Lenin was not ashamed: "The 
 peasant," he explained, "is a small capitalist. There- 
 fore, the dictatorship of the proletariat means the gov- 
 ernment of Russia by the towns. We do not recognize 
 equality between the peasant (that is, the agriculturist) 
 and the town worker." 
 
 The Bolshevists have given various names from time 
 to time for this looting of the countryside by the Red 
 Army. The usual name has been "taxation in kind." 
 As Trotzky declared in certain of his "theses" (Pravda, 
 December 17, 1919) : "the obtaining of goods from the 
 country will inevitably be considered by the more pros- 
 perous elements of the peasant class as a State tax in 
 kind. The methodical and regular payment of such a 
 tax can be assured only by coercion on the part of the 
 State." Not only did the peasants so regard these
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 109 
 
 requisitions but the Soviet Government itself at first 
 gave them this name, as we may see from a passage in 
 Soviet Russia of February 28, 1920 : 
 
 Beginning with November, 1918, to this old system 
 there were added on two taxes of a purely revolutionary 
 character which stand out apart within the partly out- 
 grown system "taxes in kind" (decree of October 30, 
 1918), and "extraordinary taxes" (November 2, 1918). 
 
 Both decrees have been described as follows by Com- 
 rade Krestinsky, Commissary of the Finance, at the May 
 session of the financial sub-divisions: 
 
 "These are decrees of a different order, the only thing 
 they have in common is that they both bear a class 
 character and that each provides for the tax to increase 
 in direct proportion with the amount of property which 
 the taxpayer possesses, that the poor are completely 
 free from both taxes, and the lower middle class pays 
 them in a smaller proportion. 
 
 "The extraordinary tax aims at the savings which 
 remained in the hands of the urban and larger rural 
 bourgeoisie, from former times. Insofar as it is directed 
 at noij-labor savings it cannot be levied "more than once. 
 
 "As regards the taxes in kind, borrowing Comrade 
 Krestinsky 's expression, 'it will remain in force during 
 the period of transition to the Communist order until 
 the village will from practical experience realize the 
 advantage of rural economy on a large scale compared 
 with the small farming estate, and will of its own accord, 
 without compulsion, en masse adopt the communist 
 method of land cultivation.' " 
 
 Krestinsky 's claim that this intended gradual transi- 
 tion to agricultural communism is not to be compulsory 
 will deceive no one. He himself classes it with the other 
 revolutionary tax which is specifically designed to de-
 
 110 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 stroy the larger bourgeois of both town and country so 
 completely that it can be levied only once. 
 
 Trotzky is also right about the coercion. There has 
 certainly been nothing voluntary about the payment of 
 this "tax in kind." 
 
 Up to April 1, 1919, the Military Supply Bureau 
 (from Petrograd alone) sent 255 military requisitioning 
 detachments to various provinces. (The Northern Com- 
 mune, No. 73, September 4, 1919.) 
 
 According to the report presented to the Moscow Con- 
 ference of Soviets 30,000 men had been sent in the 
 course of a short period, but the majority of them were 
 incapable of performing their task, while others were 
 themselves gross speculators. (The Moscow Pravda, 
 No. 105, July 4, 1919.) 
 
 An atmosphere of aggression, espionage and bloody 
 strife permeated the villages, coupled with an uncer- 
 tainty as to the results of agricultural labor. The situa- 
 tion is best illustrated by the fact that out of the 36,500 
 men forming the total of the food requisitioning detach- 
 ments during the period from June to December, 1918, 
 7,309, i.e., 20 per cent., were killed and wounded by 
 the peasants while "collecting the grain." (Izvestia 
 of the Food Commissariat for December, 1918.) 
 
 From the very first and while all of these activities 
 were going on, Lenin continued his usual policy of 
 applying plausible phrases to the Bolshevist practices. 
 At the Communist Party Congress in March, 1919, he 
 declared : 
 
 From the task of suppressing the bourgeoisie we must 
 now transfer our attention to the task of building up 
 the life of the middle peasantry. We must live with 
 the middle peasantry in peace. The middle peasantry
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 111 
 
 in a communistic society will be on our side only if we 
 lighten and improve its economic conditions. . . . 
 
 The middle peasant is very practical and values only 
 actual assistance, quite carelessly thrusting aside all com- 
 mands and instructions from above. 
 
 First help him and then you will secure his confidence. 
 If this matter is handled correctly, if each step taken 
 by our group in the village, in the canton, in the food- 
 supply detachment, or in any organization, is carefully 
 made, is carefully verified from this point of view, then 
 we shall win the confidence of the peasant, and only 
 then shall we be able to move forward. Now we must 
 give him assistance. We must give him advice and this 
 must not be the order of a commanding officer, but the 
 advice of a comrade. The peasant then will be absolutely 
 for us. 
 
 The measures previously described are, evidently, ex- 
 amples of "comradely advice" and "actual assistance." 
 
 Under these methods the peasants hid their products 
 and sowed less grain in order that there should be noth- 
 ing left for the plunderers. It was then that the Soviets 
 decided to put still more terror into their actions and 
 to give their requisitions a new name. In order to be 
 able to seize plausibly all grain under all circumstances 
 they declared grain and certain other food products 
 the monopoly of the state. They decreed that the 
 peasants should be left only enough to supply their own 
 families with food and that all the "surplus" should go 
 to the Soviet Government. 
 
 Instead of making things better the new method made 
 matters worse. Bolshevist statistics in 1920 admitted 
 that the agricultural productivity of the country had 
 fallen to fifty per cent or less. The area under cultiva- 
 tion had fallen to about seventy per cent. The yield as
 
 112 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 the result of bad seeds, the lack of manure, agricultural 
 implements and horses (taken by the Soviet armies), 
 as well as poor and negligent methods of cultivation 
 (partly voluntary) had also fallen so as to reduce the 
 crop to less than fifty per cent. 
 
 The following description of the agricultural position 
 in Russia was given in one of the reports read at a meet- 
 ing in Moscow on February 22, and printed in the 
 Economic Life of February 24 (1921) : 
 
 The present position of agriculture is such that the 
 sowing area is one-third less than in pre-war years. The 
 yield has decreased by 45 per cent. In former years 
 the export of grain amounted to 700,000,000 poods, but 
 in 1918 there was already a deficit in the crops amount- 
 ing to about 1,000,000,000 poods. The peasantry, con- 
 stituting 85 per cent, of the population, is no longer a 
 producer, but a consumer. Not finding the necessary 
 commodities he wants on the markets, the peasant re- 
 duced his produce to the minimum of his personal needs. 
 
 Alarmed at such figures and at the prospect of a 
 greater and more rapid agricultural decay and food 
 shortage the Soviet Congress in December, 1920, decided 
 upon still more violent persecution of the peasantry. 
 The new situation is thus summed up by a friendly 
 correspondent, Michael Farbman: 
 
 The threatening famine and its causes should obviously 
 have led to an immediate loosening of the screws and 
 a change of policy, yet the opposite took place. In fact, 
 the Food Department published a programme of grain 
 requisitions almost twice as big as that obtained in the 
 previous year, while Ossinsky, who frankly admitted the 
 peasants' refusal to cultivate their land, outlined a most
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 113 
 
 fantastic scheme of compelling them to do so. He was 
 not in the least alarmed by the crisis, but frankly ex- 
 pressed satisfaction that the terrible miscarriage of 
 previous schemes for socializing agriculture and the ob- 
 stinate refusal of the peasants to fall into line justified 
 the state in intervening. 
 
 Unfortunately, Ossinsky's ideas aroused the sympathy 
 of the heads of the Food Administration, who were sure 
 their enormous programme of food requisitioning during 
 this famine year would fail unless they were permitted 
 to apply more force than usual. In a few weeks Ossinsky 
 and the Food Administration were able to convince the 
 Communist Party that this new scheme was a necessity. 
 The All-Russian Congress of Soviets last December sanc- 
 tioned Ossinsky's ideas, adopting a decree "In Aid of 
 Agriculture." The main provisions of this embodied 
 the scheme of compulsory sowing of the fields and estab- 
 lished seed funds. 
 
 The giving to this decree the title "In Aid of Agricul- 
 ture" is typical. Lenin also repeated his beneficent 
 phrases at this Congress: "We shall not advance a step 
 in our program without the peasants," and he again 
 said that the law should "assist" peasant farming. 
 
 By March the food reserve was almost completely 
 exhausted, the prospects for agriculture were still worse, 
 and the peasant revolts, especially in the grain produc- 
 ing districts, South Russia, Siberia and the Caucasus, 
 were more frequent and menacing than ever before. The 
 Communists, led by Lenin, now decided once more to 
 change the name of their requisitions, reverting from the 
 "grain monoply" back to "taxation in kind." The 
 Moscow wireless of March 16, 1921, thus reports Lenin's 
 speech indicating this second change in method:
 
 114 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 We can satisfy the small farmer in two ways. He 
 must first of all be allowed a certain liberty in effecting 
 exchange, and secondly, we must obtain goods and sup- 
 plies. Should we be able to obtain a certain amount 
 of goods which the State could use for purposes of 
 exchange, we [i.e. the Communist Party] as a State 
 would add economic power to our political power. Ex- 
 perience will show us how a certain freedom in local 
 exchange is possible, not only without destroying, but 
 in fact strengthening the political power of the pro- 
 letariat. 
 
 We shall be able to obtain a certain part of the goods 
 we require from abroad. If the goods are in the pos- 
 session of the State then the power of the latter in- 
 creases. Economically we must satisfy the middle 
 peasant and agree to the freedom [ !] of exchange in 
 order to keep power more firmly in the hands of the 
 proletariat. 
 
 It will be noted that Lenin reassured the Communists 
 that no concession whatever was to be made in the direc- 
 tion of democracy or towards giving the peasant majority 
 any voice whatever over their own affairs. Indeed in 
 a speech which was made to the railway men at Moscow 
 after the enactment of the new legislation, reported by 
 the wireless on April 3, Lenin made this doubly clear: 
 
 As far as I personally am concerned, I know only too 
 well how badly organized are the Russian peasants, how 
 little class consciousness they have. In such circum- 
 stances they do not represent a serious menace to the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat. Therefore, we must by 
 all means strive to attain union with the peasantry and 
 meet them half with regard to their justifiable demands. . 
 
 Again we have fair phrases with no real change in 
 the peasants' economic condition:
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 115 
 
 After hearing Lenin's report, the March Congress 
 passed the following resolution: 
 
 (1) In order to ensure the correct and unhindered 
 working of farms on a basis of allowing the owner greater 
 liberty in the use of his economic resources, in order 
 to strengthen peasant farms and increase their output 
 and also in order to accurately estimate the duties to- 
 wards the State which must be carried out by the land- 
 owners, the levy as a means of supplying the State with 
 food stuffs, raw materials and fodder is replaced by 
 taxation in kind. 
 
 (2) This tax must be less than the quantity at present 
 demanded in accordance with the State levy. The 
 amount of the tax must be estimated to cover the 
 minimum requirements of the Army, the town workers 
 and the agricultural workers. The total amount of the 
 tax must be gradually decreased as the restoration of 
 transport and industry enables Soviet authority to ob- 
 tain agricultural products by normal means by exchang- 
 ing articles produced by factories, works and peasant 
 craft industries for same. 
 
 (3) The tax will be levied in the form of a percentage 
 of the produce of the farms, taking into consideration 
 the harvest, the number of consumers on the farm and 
 the actual quantities of live stock. 
 
 (5) The law regarding taxation in kind must be drawn 
 up in such a way and published by such a time as will 
 enable farmers to accurately ascertain the amount of 
 taxation which will fall to their share before the begin- 
 ning of spring work in the fields. 
 
 When this law was being put into effect by the Cen- 
 tral Executive Committee of the Soviets the Moscow 
 wireless of March 23 reported a remark of the president, 
 Kalinin, as follows:
 
 116 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The peasant may exchange his surplus supplies, in, 
 excess of the tax, for manufactured articles either at 
 the local market place or through the co-operative 
 societies. 
 
 What now had changed besides the reversion to the 
 old name for the forced requisitions? What grain had 
 the Soviets taken before? There can only be one answer 
 all they could practically obtain. For many reasons 
 it was desirable to leave the peasants enough food so 
 that they could live until the next season and produce 
 a new crop. More than that was not left to them because 
 of the terrible shortage in the cities. Now that the crops 
 are less than ever and the city shortage greater will 
 they revert to any other division of the product? The 
 question only needs to be asked to see what the answer 
 must be. 
 
 An effort is to be made, however, to state in advance 
 how much each peasant must pay. In those rare cases 
 where this estimate is for any reason low the peasant 
 may be able to produce a slight surplus for trading 
 purposes. He will then be at the mercy of the Soviets, 
 which have a monopoly of all Russia's imports and 
 most of her home products. The peasant may be able 
 to make some slight exchanges with village workshops, 
 but in the first place this has always been permitted 
 and besides, being without iron or other raw materials 
 and without tools or machinery the village workers can 
 produce little of value. For the rest this limited "free 
 trade" must be with the so-called "co-operatives" which 
 since the law abolishing co-operatives have become 
 nothing but local branches of the Soviet Administration. 
 These institutions have a monopoly of all tools and
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 117 
 
 machinery, boots, clothing, and everything in which the 
 British Labor Delegation found the peasants so de- 
 plorably lacking so far as these things exist at all in 
 the country. 
 
 From the side of the population of the small towns 
 there will be a certain amount of "free trade" with 
 these few lucky peasants who have a surplus above the 
 "taxation in kind." This trade has also gone on stead- 
 ily, though the Soviets have hitherto branded it as 
 criminal "speculation" and executed many persons 
 accordingly. 
 
 Already the so-called "co-operatives" are setting their 
 own prices for the scythes, sickles, and other imported 
 tools which have obtained such a high value in the 
 country-side because of their scarcity. There is no com- 
 petition, the Government has a monopoly, and can set 
 its own prices. 
 
 To call the local governmental trading posts ' ' co-opera- 
 tives" because they consist of remnants of the organization 
 of the co-operatives of the past is the grossest deception. 
 At one time, and until a year or so ago, the co-operatives 
 were the most remarkable native product of the geniua 
 of the Russian people. Not only has the Soviet Govern- 
 ment destroyed them but it has given no indication 
 whatever of reviving them in the shape of what the 
 rest of the world calls "co-operatives." It will be 
 recalled that the Soviets refused a large relief expedi- 
 tion by the Entente powers for the sole reason that 
 it was proposed to put these supplies in the hands of 
 the real co-operatives. It was then March 20, 1920 
 that the Soviets dissolved that organization. How com- 
 plete the work of dissolution was we may see from the
 
 118 
 
 following resolution of the Commumist Party, and such 
 resolutions invariably become the law of the land: 
 
 To complete the work which has been begun by the 
 decree of March 20, and the subsequent activity of the 
 Party in connection with obtaining a dominating influ- 
 ence for the Party in every section of the organisation 
 of Consumers' Co-operatives. 
 
 For the purpose of obviating parallel activity of both 
 Co-operative and Soviet Organs to establish a gradual 
 abolition of Local Co-operative Societies and Provincial 
 and Central Unions of all those Sections which are of 
 a parallel and competitive nature with Soviet Sections. 
 Such Sections namely, Industrial, Timber, Agricul- 
 tural, Co-operative, Educational and others are to be 
 transferred to the corresponding Government Depart- 
 ments, such as the Supreme Council of Public Economy, 
 the People's Commissariat for Agriculture and so forth. 
 
 As regards the Agricultural and Trading Co-opera- 
 tives, the Congress completely approves of the first step 
 taken on the basis of the decree of January 27, that 
 is to say, the complete abolition of the existence of the 
 All-Russian Agricultural and Industrial Co-operatives 
 and their amalgamation with the Central Union of which 
 they are to become Sections. 
 
 The pro-Bolshevist British delegate, Margaret Bond- 
 field, in the report of the British Labor Party, admitted 
 that every voluntary element in the co-operatives had 
 been abolished and that all citizens had been "decreed" 
 as members. The crime of the real co-operatives was 
 that they believed in the exchange of commodities which 
 the Bolshevists themselves now call "free trade" but 
 which they formerly called "criminal speculation and 
 profiteering." Here is a paragraph from Miss Bond- 
 field's report:
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 119 
 
 When the Revolution first broke out, the Soviet Gov- 
 ernment recognized the importance to their economic 
 policy of the co-eperative movement. They nursed it in 
 every possible way, and treated it as a pet child. But 
 the co-operators, who were Mensheviks and Social 
 Revolutionaries, could not or would not grasp the great 
 conception of economic change. They were also political 
 enemies of the Government. For two and a half years it 
 has had the passive and sometimes active opposition of 
 some of the co-operative leaders. Earlier still, in the 
 first year of war, many co-operative Societies became a 
 bunch of spectators and profiteers just like the capi- 
 talists. 
 
 The " speculators and profiteers" then subject to the 
 firing squad are now to be known as "free traders." 
 
 It is illuminating to examine the new decree on co- 
 operatives which is advertised by pro-Soviet propa- 
 gandists abroad (though not in Russia!) as one of the 
 most solid proofs of Lenin's "abandonment of com- 
 munism." Here is a good press summary: 
 
 The decree mdkes all citizens of Russia automatically 
 members of the co-operative system. It prescribes that 
 there can be only one co-operative in each town, village, 
 or factory. Freedom of trading for individuals is em- 
 bodied in the provision permitting members to buy com- 
 modities through the co-operatives, paying in money or 
 products, and to exchange among themselves goods 
 received through their co-operatives. To the societies 
 within Russia is granted the right to buy surplus agricul- 
 tural products or products of national industries and 
 to sell them to their members; to conclude contracts 
 under Soviet law with peasants' and workers' organiza- 
 tions, and to arrange for furnishing agricultural ma- 
 chinery, threshing grain, and storing and delivering 
 products.
 
 120 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The co-operative societies are also given the right to 
 organize enterprises for production or working over raw 
 products, and also to organize truck gardening and 
 dairies on a large scale. To the co-operative societies 
 are assigned the sole right to organise distribution and 
 exchange of products throughout the country. They are 
 to be directed by administrators elected in general con- 
 ventions at which all citizens have the right to vote 
 except those excluded from suffrage by the Soviet Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The sentences underlined when taken together show 
 what it all amounts to. The co-operatives remain a com- 
 pulsory governmental monopoly. They trade in what 
 agricultural products the Soviets are pleased to leave 
 to the peasant and in the products of the Soviet's nation- 
 alized industries at prices fixed by the Soviets. The 
 "conventions" that are to govern the co-operatives are 
 official, are conducted under Soviet "law" and super- 
 vision and, the voting being public, opposition voters will 
 be men marked for discrimination by the Sovet Govern- 
 ment and, if too assertive, for prosecution by the lawless 
 Extraordinary Commission. A regime which has not 
 permitted majority control even in the Soviets will 
 scarcely permit any but Communist control of the co- 
 operatives. 
 
 An almost exact parallel may be noted between the 
 Bolshevist treatment of the co-operatives and their treat- 
 ment of the trade unions. (See previous chapter.) 
 
 In spite of all these undeniable facts the American 
 pro-Bolshevist press, Eed, Yellow, and "liberal," as well 
 as the press representing reactionary capitalistic groups 
 who hope to make a profitable deal with Lenin, have 
 hailed the restoration of "taxation in kind" as the end
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 121 
 
 of Bolshevism in agricultural Russia and the restoration 
 of capitalism. Lenin, as usual has furnished phrases 
 for his friends but it is to be noted that these phrases 
 are very similar to those he employed before his sup- 
 posed reforms. The following expressions in his speech 
 at the Communist Congress in March (1921) must be in- 
 terpreted in the double light of his previous speeches 
 above quoted and of the relatively insignificant action 
 actually taken as a result of all this verbiage. Lenin 
 said: 
 
 It is impossible to deceive a class of the population, 
 and it is dangerous to go on deceiving one's self. It 
 is time to admit frankly that the peasants manifestly 
 refuse to accept any longer proletarian dictatorship. 
 
 The right of the free disposal of their surplus products 
 must be the necessary incentive for the peasants, and 
 I invite the party to acknowledge its grave blunder in 
 attempting to deprive the producers of this right, the 
 most elemental of the peasants' instincts. 
 
 We must grant freer economic relations between 
 workers and peasants. As a matter of fact, we hitherto 
 have acted in a too military manner, and in some cases 
 have gone too far in nationalizing trade. If some Com- 
 munists thought the organization of a socialistic state 
 was possible in three years, they were dreamers. Free- 
 dom of economic relations means free trade, and free 
 trade signifies a return to capitalism. 
 
 Those who believe that in this Russia of peasants 
 Socialism can be realized, simply believe in Utopia. 
 
 Let us see what all this means. In spite of Lenin's 
 statement that the peasants can no longer be deceived 
 he is attempting to deceive them with the long tried
 
 122 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 phrase, "taxation in kind." The peasants, he recog- 
 nizes, do not accept the proletarian dictatorship; still 
 Lenin proposes to give them no voice whatever in the 
 Communist Government. Undoubtedly such very re- 
 stricted free trade as has been established means, to 
 that small degree, a return to capitalism. By admitting 
 the fact Lenin puts his critics off their guard. His 
 defense of this decree before his own followers (above 
 quoted) is that the remaining- parts of the Communist 
 system will be strengthened by this slight economic con- 
 cession, since it is unaccompanied by any surrender of 
 actual political power. As to his supposed concession 
 about the impossibility of realizing Socialism in Russia 
 now, the whole reason for the proletarian dictatorship, 
 as we have pointed out, is precisely that violence will be 
 needed to hold the power over the peasant majority 
 until in a generation or two, Socialism does become feas- 
 ible. Not only have the Communists always used this 
 argument but they have never used any other. Because 
 the country is not ready for Communism, the dictator- 
 ship of the Communists must be prolonged indefinitely 
 until it is ready. 
 
 In his closing speech at the March (1921) Congress 
 of the Russian Communist Party reproduced in Soviet 
 Russia, May 14th, 1921 Lenin again laid bare in a few 
 words his entire policy towards the agricultural popu- 
 lation (peasants) who compose the overwhelming ma- 
 jority of the nation. The inauguration of the law of 
 "taxation in kind," or, rather, the reversion to that law, 
 it will be observed, had made no change whatever in 
 the Bolshevist attitude towards the subjected peasantry. 
 Lenin said :
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 123 
 
 The work of our congress will be the more successful 
 that we have achieved absolute agreement from the very 
 beginning on two fundamental questions; the relations 
 of the vanguard of the proletariat with the proletarian 
 masses and its relations with the peasants. 
 
 We may stop the citation here to point out once more 
 that the Bolshevist attitude towards the proletarian or 
 industrial masses is almost the same as their attitude 
 towards the peasants or agricultural masses. Lenin 
 continues : 
 
 We know that the only force able to unite millions of 
 scattered small proprietors who are constantly enduring 
 great hardships, the only force able to unite them eco- 
 nomically and politically against the exploiters, is the 
 class-conscious proletariat. 
 
 Here is the same claim of the little group that con- 
 trols the Communist Party that they are divinely or 
 otherwise called to rule the masses without their con- 
 sent. And, finally, Lenin proceeds to disclose the very 
 foundations of Bolshevist policy. An alliance or part- 
 nership with foreign capital is absolutely indispensable 
 because there must be at least a minimum of "benevo- 
 lence" in the tyranny of the Soviets or the peasants by 
 continued passive resistance and violence will not permit 
 them to work. These political serfs cannot be perma- 
 nently held in subjection unless something is done 
 towards ameliorating the misery into which they hare 
 fallen through Czarist and Bolshevist rule. On this 
 point Lenin declares: 
 
 Relations will be normal then, and only then, when 
 the proletariat is in possession of a large scale industry
 
 124 OUT OF THEIR OWN. MOUTHS 
 
 with its products, and when it not only meets the needs 
 of the peasant but, besides furnishing him with the 
 necessities of life, so improves his position that its 
 superiority over the capitalistic system will be evident 
 and palpable. This, and nothing else, would constitute 
 the basis of normal Socialistic society. We cannot bring 
 this about immediately so harassed are we by ruin, need 
 and impoverishment. 
 
 It is, indeed, a Iarge-si2ed task for an utterly bankrupt 
 and incredibly inefficient bureaucracy to lift up materi- 
 ally the level of 100,000,000 wretched and embittered 
 agriculturists. To accomplish this the Bolshevists' 
 grandiose and original idea is to sell all that is most 
 valuable in Kussia, industrially, to foreign capitalists. 
 This plan, in turn, is based upon the expectation of a 
 world revolution which, within a few months or a few 
 years, will make it unnecessary to pay the foreign capi- 
 talists for the new plants and machinery that will have 
 been set up. Even if this plan is not unanimously held 
 by every one of the negotiators, the fact that it is openly 
 preached to the entire Eussian nation proves that any 
 such concessions are likely to be the source of endless 
 international friction and possibly of wars, whatever the 
 future government of Russia may be. If that govern- 
 ment is Bolshevist the agitation for world revolution will 
 continue, revived whenever any foreign upheaval 
 threatens. If the future government is non-Bolshevist 
 it will certainly repudiate the transaction that led to the 
 delivery of these vast sums into the hands of the Bol- 
 shevist enemy, and to this attempted wholesale alienation 
 of the patrimony of generations yet unborn. (See 
 Chapter XIII.)
 
 VIII 
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE; FICTITIOUS 
 REFORMS 
 
 WHILE industry was somewhat backward in Russia 
 under the Czars there was already a considerable devel- 
 opment. The country had risen to an economic level 
 far in advance of Asia or even of the other outlying 
 parts of Europe. Several millions of working men were 
 employed in modern industries and 40,000 miles of rail- 
 road were being operated under modern methods and 
 with modern equipment, as good as that of a number 
 of other European countries. In a country in this semi- 
 developed condition and with a backward political gov- 
 ernment the war did more damage than elsewhere and 
 the civil war that followed greatly increased the work 
 of destruction. "We do not quote any figures as to the 
 economic collapse, since it is impossible to say what part 
 of the existing condition is due to the present govern- 
 ment and what part is due to previous causes. Without, 
 however, quoting any figures Bolshevist authorities show 
 that no effective effort is being made to fight the con- 
 stantly increasing economic disintegration in spite of 
 the fact that such efforts are more needed in Russia 
 than in any other part of the world today. 
 
 In the report of the Central Soviet Executive Com- 
 mittee (Moscow wireless March 23, 1921) Kalinin said: 
 
 125
 
 126 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 We are confronted by a number of obstacles. The 
 main obstacle is disorganization. In order to improve 
 the condition of the workmen and peasants not in words 
 but in deeds, it is necessary to deliver a decisive blow 
 to disorganization. At present, however, there are a 
 great many obstacles in the way of a successful struggle 
 against disorganization. One of these obstacles is ban- 
 ditism, which is greatly developed in some provinces. 
 Bandits, who have been created by wealthy peasants who 
 cannot reconcile themselves to Soviet authority, mas- 
 querade as the protectors of the interests of the peasants. 
 
 Here we have a confession as to the state of disor- 
 ganization and the chief obstacles, namely, the revolts 
 of the agricultural population which Kalinin designates 
 as a revolt of bandits and wealthy peasants, although 
 the latter class, as recently stated by Lenin is now non- 
 existent, and no bodies can better deserve the title of 
 "bandits" than the expeditions sent out by the Soviets 
 to plunder the countryside. 
 
 The Bolshevists give additional causes for the economic 
 degeneration : 
 
 For 3,150,000 workmen there are in Russia 2,000,000 
 officials 1,500,000 belonging to the staffs of controlling 
 organizations. (Official statistical data quoted in the 
 official Economic Life, Dec. 9, 1920.) 
 
 One of the best descriptions of the results of this sort 
 of thing is given by Prince Kropotkin, the eminent 
 philosophical anarchist, just deceased in Soviet Russia. 
 In a letter to the British workers, very similar to that 
 printed in the report of the British labor delegation, 
 Kropotkin declares:
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 127 
 
 The ways to be followed for overthrowing an already 
 weakened Government and taking its place are well 
 known from history, old and modern. But when it comes 
 to building up quite new forms of life, especially new 
 forms of production and exchange, without having any 
 examples to imitate, when everything has to be worked 
 out by men on the spot, then an all powerful centralised 
 Government which undertakes to supply every in- 
 habitant with every lamp glass and every match to light 
 the lamp, proves absolutely incapable of doing that 
 through its functionaries, no matter how countless they 
 may be. It becomes a nuisance. 
 
 It develops snch a formidable bureaucracy that the 
 French bureaucratic system, which requires the inter- 
 vention of 40 functionaries to sell a tree felled by a 
 storm on a route nationale, becomes a trifle in compari- 
 son. This is what we now learn in Russia. And this 
 is what you, the working men of the West, can and must 
 avoid by all means, since you care for the success of 
 social reconstruction, and sent here your delegates to 
 see how a social revolution works in real life. 
 
 To sweep away that collaboration and to trust to the 
 genius of party dictators is to destroy all the independent 
 nuclei, such as "trade unions" and the local distributive 
 co-operative organization, turning them into bureau- 
 cratic organs of the party as is being done now. 
 
 A correspondent of a European socialist paper now 
 living in Soviet Russia writes in a similar vein: 
 
 All the new organisations can do nothing with the 
 general ruin. "We possess enormous riches, but cannot 
 raise them. We have no men, no tools, no transport, no 
 dress, nor boots. But we have a Provincial Labour Com- 
 mittee, a Provincial Metallic Industry Committee, a 
 Provincial Dress Committee (one suit for 10 years), a 
 Provincial Leather Committee (only for the army; the 
 civilians receive no leather), and so on.
 
 128 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Another reason for the additional decay which the 
 Soviets have superimposed upon the degenerated in- 
 dustry that they inherited has been their deplorable 
 policy of exterminating the professional classes a policy 
 which is summed up in a letter written by the famous 
 Bolshevist writer, Maxim Gorky, to Lenin and printed 
 in the Volya Rossii on October 2, 1920. In this letter 
 Gorky refers to "the extermination of the cultural re- 
 sources of the country": 
 
 While saving our own hides we are cutting off the 
 head of the nation, destroying its brain. 
 
 Vladimir Hitch, I take my stand on their side, and 
 I prefer arrest and imprisonment to complicity, even 
 though it be only silent, in the extermination of the 
 best and most invaluable forces of the Russian people. 
 To me it has become evident that the "Reds" are just 
 such enemies of the people as are the "Whites." 
 
 A fourth vice of the Soviet system which is burdening 
 industrial administration is the passing of endless, im- 
 praetical and unenforceable decrees. Lenin himself 
 refers to certain agricultural decrees as intended 
 primarily for propaganda. And at a meeting reported 
 in Izvestia, Moscow, January 1, 1921, he declared : 
 
 In Smolny we have talked more than enough about 
 general principles. Now after three years we have 
 decrees on many points of this question [the trade union 
 question] concerning many of its integral parts. But 
 it is the sad fate of the decrees that they are signed 
 in order to be forgotten and to go unfulfilled by us. 
 
 We are able to study differences of opinion in prin- 
 ciple and even then make mistakes, we are masters at
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 129 
 
 this, but to study practical things, and to verify them, 
 we are unable to do. 
 
 What is most amusing is that Lenin himself soon gave 
 an illustration of the truth of his accusations. The all- 
 important problem for the Soviets is to get the perse- 
 cuted workers to work. The supposed means of accom- 
 plishing this at present are so-called disciplinary courts. 
 Yet Lenin and other Bolshevist chiefs had apparently 
 forgotten the very existence of these courts or of the 
 decree promulgating them. In Pmvda (January 13, 
 1921) in an account of the All-Russian Conference of 
 Professional Unions he is quoted as follows : 
 
 When I read Rudzutuk's theses about disciplinary 
 courts, I thought there certainly must be a decree about 
 this. And, indeed there was. A regulation concerning 
 Disciplinary Labor juries, was promulgated on November 
 14th, 1919 (Statute-Book No. 537). 
 
 As this decree had been on the statute books over 
 a year no wonder Lenin had forgotten its existence 
 in view of the numbers of the decrees issued since that 
 time. 
 
 In this matter of paper decrees as in the matter of 
 the issuance of paper money and of Bolshevist propa- 
 ganda generally there is one hope. The paper supply 
 is very short. The type is being rapidly used up. The 
 production of type-making factories is one-twentieth that 
 of peace times. Then the number of workmen in the 
 printing industry, doubtless for reasons we have already 
 pointed out, has been reduced to one-half. 
 
 We cannot better sum up the total failure of the
 
 130 OUT. OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 economic and industrial policy of the Soviets than in 
 the words of Maxim Gorky in the Moscow Pravda: 
 
 Revolutionary Socialist policy is assuredly a very 
 beautiful thing, but- we must work. We have created 
 an atmosphere of general idleness and criminal negli- 
 gence. We have never worked so ill or so dishonestly 
 as at present. To be sure, this is in part the result of 
 malnutrition and consequent bodily weakness, but in the 
 main it proceeds from a lack of sense of responsibility. 
 
 Again if we wish a detailed picture of Ihe working 
 out of the system we cannot do better tfi*an to quote 
 from another article of Gorky's in the same journal. 
 The description of this master writer and Bolshevist is 
 so able and conclusive that we quote it at some length: 
 
 In another place a car is being loaded. On one axle 
 are piled heavy barrels of cement, cases of lead, pieces 
 of machinery, &c. On the other, rocking chairs, house- 
 hold goods, a perambulator things that are quite light. 
 The overloaded axle will of course become heated and 
 the car will not reach its destination. I have been a 
 porter myself. I know that had I tried to load a wagon 
 in that way my boss would have boxed my ears and told 
 me to go to the devil. And I should have deserved it, 
 for I should have been injuring the rolling stock. 
 
 In another place a mechanical saw is being used to 
 cut rafters v and planks from a house which has been 
 torn down. The wood is full of nails and the saw groans 
 painfully. It is quickly spoiled and its teeth broken, 
 yet it is common knowledge that we have no saws and 
 that the price is so high that for one saw we have to 
 give many bushels of wheat, and wheat itself is scarce. 
 
 Houses are being destroyed in a most revolting fashion. 
 The windows are all broken, though we have no glass,
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 131 
 
 and it would be so easy to take out the panes without 
 breaking them. In the barracks transparent paper takes 
 the place of window glass, letting in no light and keeping 
 in no heat, therefore more furniture is burnt to warm 
 the barracks. 
 
 Metal roofing is allowed to lie for months in the midst 
 of the wreckage of destroyed houses. It rusts and be- 
 comes absolutely useless. The roofs of the inhabited 
 houses are also rusted and the rain comes through, but 
 nothing is done to mend them. "Walls and ceilings fall 
 in and well built houses rapidly become uninhabitable. 
 
 And this is how by sheer stupidity, by lack of regard 
 for their own labor, our people destroy the valuable 
 assets of the nation and ruin the patrimony of the public. 
 
 Our streets are littered with pieces of iron and the 
 moujik (peasant) in his village has nothing wherewith 
 to repair his wheels and axles, and cannot even forge 
 shoes or nails for his horses or teeth for his rakes. That 
 is why he goes out to the railway bridges and tries to 
 saw off a piece of iron, or to loosen the rivets of the 
 sleepers, or attempts to steal from the station the piece 
 of metal that he needs. For a carload of iron the moujik 
 would gladly barter a carload of wheat. Yet the hun- 
 dreds of thousands of old saucepans that are scattered 
 among the ruins of the houses would suit him very well 
 and he could put to good use the window sashes and 
 doors that are burned in the cities for heating purposes. 
 
 Doubtless these are all very minor matters, and par- 
 ticularly unimportant to us whose object is to teach 
 the whole world a new order of things and a new manner 
 of life. But can one learn conscientiously from masters 
 who themselves either do not know how to work or will 
 not work, and who will soon have no clothes to put on 
 their backs? I do not think the European workman 
 can have any great respect for comrades who do not 
 know how to organize their own labor. The politics of 
 social revolution doubtless is very fine, but work comes 
 first.
 
 132 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 All these little things of which I have spoken are 
 repeated by thousands, by tens of thousands, and they 
 create an atmosphere of scandalous unrest, of laziness 
 and of criminal carelessness, for all that goes to make 
 up the patrimony of the public. 
 
 In lieu of a conclusion to the above we may quote 
 the expression of that Socialistic progressive who is 
 President of Czecho-Slovakia, Professor Masaryk an 
 ardent admirer of the Russian people and a life long 
 student at first hand of Russian affairs. President 
 Masaryk says: 
 
 The trouble with the Bolshevists is they do not know, 
 and never have known, how to work. They know how 
 to make slaves, fight, and murder, but they are unable 
 to work with application and continuity. 
 
 The economic conditions are getting rapidly worse. 
 The leading Soviet railway expert calculates that it will 
 take 25 years to put the Russian railways back into 
 shape. But to accomplish regeneration even in this 
 period would require Al credit abroad and a high degree 
 of efficiency at home. As long as efficiency, according to 
 Bolshevist reports, ranges from 20 to 70 per cent of the 
 low pre-war level and credit approaches zero, regenera- 
 tion is impossible and progressive degeneration as 
 Hughes and Hoover state must continue. According 
 to official Bolshevist reports mines are in a worse state 
 than the railways and the basic iron and steel industries 
 are in a still more complete condition of collapse. Under 
 these conditions the few hundred foreign locomotives 
 that can be paid for are but a drop in the bucket. The 
 slight improvements reported amount to nothing in com-
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 133 
 
 parison to the wholesale deterioration of 40,000 miles 
 of roadbed and the rotting away of the machinery in 
 thousands of mines. 
 
 It is obvious that all social reforms on a national scale 
 are wholly impossible under economic conditions like 
 these, where the industrial population has been reduced 
 to a third or fourth of what it was and where the wage- 
 earners 'that remain are wretchedly clothed and are 
 happy when they have a starvation ration of black bread 
 to say nothing of any other food. Reforms of any 
 substantial kind whatever for 100,000,000 people cost 
 colossal sums of money, and occasional "model" institu- 
 tions in a vast country are but a mockery serving to 
 demonstrate the utter inadequacy and futility of what 
 is being accomplished. 
 
 Far from moving forward we can be mathematically 
 certain that every fundamental institution is falling back 
 in Russia today especially when we remember that the 
 liberal Zemstvos, or provincial councils, under the old 
 regime, had made a considerable beginning in certain 
 directions. 
 
 Yet the Bolshevist propagandists and their "liberal" 
 accomplices have the audacity to assert that vast and 
 substantial reforms are being carried out in "art," 
 "science," "education" and "culture." Though no 
 foundation whatever for any of these assertions has been 
 produced they have been so often repeated that the 
 impression has become widespread that there must be 
 "something" in them. 
 
 The most notorious of the mythical "reforms" being 
 reported by the Bolshevists and their friends is the 
 reform of the schools and the supposed good treatment
 
 134 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 of children by the Soviets. Yet it is precisely the rising 
 generation that always suffers most from such moral 
 and intellectual chaos and physical suffering as prevail 
 for men, women and children in Russia today. Far 
 from putting the children first, the Soviets have put 
 them almost last. First comes the Red Army used not 
 only for defense but for aggression and to put down 
 peasant attempts at self-government with sufficient 
 bloodshed to terrorize the survivors. Then comes the 
 propaganda, squandering millions of dollars from South 
 America to China and in every village of Russia. 
 Next comes the Soviet bureaucracy usually given food 
 privileges on the plausible ground that they need them 
 in the strenuous work of keeping their hold on the 
 government. Besides these two classes the army of spies, 
 food seizing detachments, etc., can obviously get and 
 demand preferred treatment. After all these, no doubt, 
 the children are given a preference over the remainder 
 of the population. And our wretched sentimentalists 
 call this "looking out for the children!" 
 
 The Communists always assert and never deny that 
 they are deliberately sacrificing the entire population for 
 the present in the belief that they are thus introducing 
 the form of future society that they prefer. They 
 acknowledge they are largely responsible for the bureau- 
 cracy, disorganization, etc., that are among the chief 
 causes of the suffering. Here is how this affects the 
 children : 
 
 Frederick J. Libby, commissioner of the American 
 Friends' Service Committee (Quakers), who recently 
 returned from Reval, brought back information that- 
 many children are starving in Russia.
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 135 
 
 Mr. Libby obtained his information from Arthur J. 
 Watts, an English Friend, who has been engaged in 
 relief work in Russia. Mr. Watts gave Mr. Libby a 
 translation of the reports of Eussian commissars from 
 various cities. 
 
 It appears from the commissars' report that the situa- 
 tion of the children varies greatly in the different cen- 
 tres. In some cities, such as Vitebsk, it is reported that 
 whole families are perishing from starvation. In others, 
 such as Smolensk, Yaroslav, the children are reported 
 to be obtaining sufficient nourishment. The report from 
 Vitebsk stated that the bread substitutes give the chil- 
 dren dysentery which it is impossible to cure. 
 
 The commissars report that in several centres the chil- 
 dren had been unable to obtain bread for a long time 
 and that in others no kind of fats or meats were obtain- 
 able and that milk was received rarely. 
 
 The children of Moscow were declared to have no 
 sugar nor fats, and to be either starving or falling ill 
 through under-nourishment. Inmates of the children's 
 homes in Novgorod are starving, the reports stated. 
 They receive no meat, butter, potatoes, milk or salt, but 
 live on a daily portion of sour cabbage soup, millet 
 cooked in water, and black bread made from bad flour. 
 They are suffering from scurvy as a result of under- 
 nourishment. 
 
 For all this the Bolshevists are largely though, of 
 course, not wholly responsible. Whatever the degree 
 of their responsibility may be, it is an outrageous false- 
 hood to talk of great educational advances under such 
 conditions which are admitted as being far worse than 
 anything Russia has hitherto experienced. 
 
 Yet the Soviets have never ceased to put forth* inflated 
 and grandiose paper schemes as if certain of accomplish-
 
 136 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 ment, to take credit to themselves for the reopening of 
 old institutions under new names, such as "children's 
 palaces," to show off a handful of favored schools as 
 typical of thousands, to talk of new methods while ad- 
 mitting the wholesale lack not only of new teachers but 
 of teachers generally, and while foisting upon the chil- 
 dren their crude, ignorant, violent and petty dogmas in 
 the place of the culture of the "ages to claim that they 
 are giving them a new and superior education. "We have 
 Russian Communists in America. Let anybody who 
 knows them think of what is happening to the starving 
 and helpless children of Russia in the light of this Mos- 
 cow wireless of February 6th, 1921 : 
 
 Instructions of the General Committee of the Russian 
 Communist Party of Communist Workers of tEe People 's 
 Commissariat for Education: 
 
 The fundamental direction must remain in the hands 
 of the Communists, while the specialists are to be their 
 assistants. The curriculum of general education is to be 
 decided upon by the Communists alone. 
 
 Recalling the fact that only the most violent and 
 narrow-minded one per cent of Russia are members of 
 the Communist Party, and remembering that the 200,000 
 teachers who, it is said, are needed will absorb a large 
 part of that organization, leaving no possibility of dis- 
 crimination in appointments, consider the statement of 
 the Communist Party Congress in March, 1919, that one 
 "basis of educational work already established by the 
 Soviet Government is the preparation of a new class 
 of teachers who are imbued with Communism." 
 
 Lenin explained the Bolshevist conception of public
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 137 
 
 education in the most explicit manner at the All-Russian 
 Political Education Conference on the 5th of November, 
 1920. (See Soviet Russia, April 30th, 1921.) He ex- 
 plained that the teachers must be, first of all, political 
 propagandists and humble followers of the Communist 
 Party: 
 
 We must treat this question frankly and in complete 
 opposition to tradition, must combat the erroneous con- 
 ception that education may under no circumstances be 
 combined with politics. "We are living in a historic 
 period, in the period of struggle against the world 
 bourgeoisie, which is still very much stronger than we 
 are. In such a moment of struggle we must defend our 
 Socialist work of construction and wage a conflict with 
 this bourgeoisie, both in a military and what is more 
 important in a spiritual sense, in the way of education. 
 
 The teaching staff must itself attract the working 
 classes, fill them with the Communist spirit, interest them 
 in what the Communists are doing and win them over 
 to the Communist standpoint. 
 
 But the school teacher the world over has a certain 
 minimum respect for his calling. Though the over- 
 whelming majority of the teachers under Kerensky were 
 Social Revolutionists or Social Democrats, they were 
 teachers, and not propagandists. Dismissed by the 
 wholesale, the majority of the new teachers are scarcely 
 more amenable. Lenin and Lunacharsky, Commissary 
 for Education, complain bitterly of this difficulty and 
 pursue their usual method of vilifying their victims. 
 Lenin says, in the speech just quoted: 
 
 Already for a long time the teachers ' organization has 
 been fighting against the socialist transformation. In
 
 138 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 pedagogical circles the bourgeois prejudices have taken 
 particularly firm root, and we are compelled to conquer 
 our Communist position slowly, step by step. The teach- 
 ing staff, which grew up in bourgeois prejudices, was at 
 the bottom of its heart hostile to the proletariat and 
 had no contact with it. We must now raise a new army 
 of pedagogical workers, which must be more closely 
 connected with the party, more intimately acquainted 
 with its ideals, more fully impressed with the spirit of 
 those ideas. 
 
 Far from any advance less than 27 per cent of the 
 children are receiving any instruction whatever. Hu~ 
 mcmite, the leading Communist organ of France, on 
 January 3, 1920, in summing up the official report of 
 Lunacharsky, Chief Soviet Commissar for Education, 
 gives this figure and the British Labor Party's Russian 
 delegation reports: 
 
 The Russian educational authorities estimate that 25 
 per cent of the child population are now in receipt of 
 a normal education of the elementary type. This is prob- 
 ably an overestimate, as in some places visited accom- 
 modation for only 10 per cent of the children existed; 
 and also there is no method of insuring compulsory 
 attendance as in England, and children who do not wish 
 to attend simply remain away. In some of the villages 
 any education is of a very primitive description and con- 
 fined to the winter months and to children between 8 
 and 13. It is estimated that 15 per cent or 20 per cent 
 of the children are receiving some form of effective ele- 
 mentary education. 
 
 It may, therefore, be questioned if the proportion of 
 children attending school is greater than under the 
 Czars!
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 139 
 
 The Bolshevists have repeatedly stated that the people 
 must be made literate if they are to become useful sub- 
 jects for Communist rule ; this was also the Prussian idea 
 of education. But the Communists, not to mention their 
 personal incapacity, have a system that produces neither 
 the personnel nor the material for educational institu- 
 tions of any kind. Far from any sacrifice being made for 
 the children, education, literature, science, or art, all 
 these are deliberately, daily and unremittingly sacrificed 
 in order to maintain and, if possible, to increase the 
 power of the Communist Party. 
 
 Education is, first of all, the pre-requisite for propa- 
 ganda. Second, after the individual has learned to read 
 and write, education becomes propaganda as we may 
 see from Lenin's speech already quoted: 
 
 The most important point at present for the comrades 
 ?n the work of culture and education is that of the 
 relation between education and our political aim. In 
 bourgeois society it has always been, and still is main- 
 tained, that the spirit of knowledge is apolitical, or 
 unpolitical. This is a piece of hypocrisy on the part 
 of the bourgeoisie, nothing more nor less than a refined 
 method of deceiving the masses, 99 per cent of whom 
 are oppressed by the domination of the church, of private 
 property, etc. 
 
 One of our chief tasks is that of opposing to bourgeois 
 deception and hypocrisy our truth, and of obliging the 
 bourgeoisie to recognize our truth. 
 
 In regard to family life there is the most rapid and 
 demoralizing retrogression. Homes are being broken up 
 and children, as far as practicable, separated from 
 parental influence and placed in a sort of orphan asylum
 
 >140 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 called "children's homes" or "boarding schools." The 
 children are not quite so wretchedly fed in these institu- 
 tions as when with their families (though the reports 
 above quoted show they are often starving even in the 
 Soviet "homes") a fact which naturally makes fond 
 parents surrender them "voluntarily" according to the 
 Bolshevists and their cold-blooded "liberal" supporters. 
 But besides this "the theory of the Communist Party 
 that every soul must give a labor contribution to the 
 community carries with it the implication that the in- 
 dividual must be freed from the economic burden of 
 the family. Both men and women are paid on the basis 
 of the individual wage." (British Labor Delegation 
 report.) 
 
 So with other "reforms." All vital and national im- 
 provements are costly. Therefore none have been made, 
 and all changes are either of secondary importance 
 such as new "movies" or on an utterly insignificant 
 scale for a country of the first magnitude. All claims to 
 the contrary are among the clearest proofs of the bold and 
 unscrupulous character of the Bolshevist propaganda. 
 
 The Bolshevist leader himself does not make any claim 
 of construction worth boasting about. He is proud of 
 his work of destruction and has said so again and again. 
 All pre-existing civilization is to be destroyed. As for 
 the rest he is proud of his resistance to those who would 
 destroy him. Reconstruction can and must wait. He is 
 very patient, as to construction, as long as he believes 
 the fighting is going his way: 
 
 In our struggle two main factors are apparent. On 
 the one hand there is the task of destroying, of an-
 
 THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 141 
 
 nihilating the heritage received from the bourgeois 
 regime, of suppressing the ceaselessly repeated attempts 
 of the bourgeoisie to destroy the Soviet power. This 
 task has hitherto taken up most of our attention and 
 prevented us from going about the other task, that of 
 reconstruction. 
 
 (Speech at Political Education Conference November 
 5, 1920 from Soviet Russia, April 30, 1921.)
 
 IX 
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION; THE ATTEMPT TO OVER- 
 THROW DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS 
 
 THE foundation of the entire Bolshevist movement as 
 well as the foreign policy of the Soviet Government is 
 world revolution, the overthrow of all existing govern- 
 ments even the most democratic all being regarded as 
 equally "capitalistic." This is the aim of the Russian 
 Communist Party, which is the Soviet Government, and 
 also of the Communist Internationale which shapes the 
 Soviet foreign policy. No compromise of this aim has 
 been adopted or is even projected. 
 
 In the Bolshevist view the present is a period of 
 closely connected wars and revolutions, all having a com- 
 mon capitalistic cause, and all working towards the same 
 end, a communist world state. 
 
 The increasing pressure of the proletariat, particularly 
 its victories in some countries, strengthens the resistance 
 of the exploiters and compels them to create new forms 
 of international capitalist solidarity (League of Nations, 
 etc.) which, organizing the systematic exploitation of 
 all nations on a world scale, directs all its efforts to the 
 immediate suppression of the revolutionary movement 
 of the proletariat of all countries. 
 
 All this inevitably leads to the blending of civil war 
 within various countries with the defensive wars of 
 revolutionary countries, and the struggles of oppressed 
 nations against the yoke of imperialist states. (From 
 
 142
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 143 
 
 Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bol- 
 shevists), Adopted at the VHIth conference of the 
 Party, Moscow, 18-23rd March, 1919, English Transla- 
 tion Published by the Executive Committee of the Com- 
 munist International.) 
 
 The same thought has been recently expressed by Trot- 
 zky as follows (see Soviet Russia, April 2, 1921) : 
 
 The international proletariat has set out to seize the 
 power. Whether civil war is or is not "in general" 
 one of the indispensable attributes of revolution "in 
 general" it is nevertheless incontestable that the forward 
 movement of the proletariat, in Russia, in Germany, and 
 in certain parts of what was once Austria-Hungary, has 
 taken on the form of civil war to the bitter end. And 
 that not only on internal fronts but also on external 
 fronts. 
 
 The military part of this program is in abeyance be- 
 cause of the failure of attempted Bolshevist revolutions 
 in neighboring countries such as Hungary, Bavaria, etc., 
 and also because of the economic and military weakness 
 of the Soviets, but the Soviet regime has not overlooked 
 a single opportunity to assault a weakened neighbor, as 
 we see from the attack on Poland August, 1920, and the 
 recent conquest of Georgia and neighboring territories. 
 The very oath of the Red Army shows it is regarded as 
 a force for "liberating" the world proletariat. The 
 following clauses of the oath are quoted from the report 
 of the Russian delegation of the British Labor Party: 
 
 Before the working classes of Russia and the whole 
 world, I undertake to carry this name with honour, to 
 follow the military calling with conscience and to pre-
 
 144 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 serve from damage and robbery the national and military 
 possessions as the hair of my head. 
 
 I undertake to abstain from and to deter any act liable 
 to dishonour the name of citizens of the Soviet Republic ; 
 moreover to direct all my deeds and thoughts to the 
 Great Aim of Liberation of all Workers. 
 
 The effort of the Soviet "Government" through its 
 Third Internationale to foment revolutions throughout 
 the world continues. Its first aim is revolution now. 
 Where this is impracticable the aim becomes to build 
 up a revolutionary movement prepared to attempt a 
 revolution within a very few years. The immediate pur- 
 pose, in that case, is to undermine all governments, 
 destroy all non-Bolshevist labor organizations, and to 
 make converts who may be relied upon not only to give 
 the Russian Soviet Government moral support but to 
 obey all the revolutionary orders it issues. While the 
 world revolution policy has failed to create revolutions, 
 it has succeeded in very large measure in all these 
 secondary objects. It has therefore been a great success 
 from the Bolshevist standpoint, and this is the view of 
 all the Bolshevist leaders. 
 
 In making trade agreements and other treaties the 
 Bolshevist diplomats find it suits their purpose to make 
 a wholesale denial of the entire world revolution policy, 
 and they have made these denials very frequently from 
 the beginning. A few weeks before the Second Congress 
 of the Third Internationale, where the policy of world 
 revolution was brought into its most complete form, 
 Kalinin, President of the Central Executive Committee 
 of the Soviets, issued a statement to Poland in which he 
 claimed that the Russian Communists "never attempted
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 145 
 
 and are not going to attempt to bring in Communism 
 in foreign countries. ' ' Within ninety days of this state- 
 ment the Bolshevist authorities made repeated declara- 
 tions of their purpose to set up a Soviet government 
 in Poland by force of arms. And when Trotzky, as 
 War Lord, was in Bialystock, in northeastern Poland, he 
 even assumed that Sovietism would rapidly spread from 
 Poland to the entire world. " Bolshevism," he said, 
 "was more powerful than ever and would soon spread 
 to other countries." "In a year, "/he continued, "all 
 Europe will be bolshevist." 
 
 When we see how totally false was the statement of 
 the President of the Soviets we may begin to realize 
 the complete worthlessness of other statements of the 
 Bolshevist diplomats and, in fact, of all their public 
 declarations issued for foreign consumption. The Com- 
 munist Government of Russia has now entered into 
 solemn agreement with Great Britain not to carry on 
 revolutionary propaganda in British territory. Any 
 such agreement, along with all other promises of the 
 Soviets, was denounced by Secretary Colby as wholly 
 worthless in view of their faithless record and their 
 revolutionary operations through the Third Internation- 
 ale. Secretary Colby said (in his note of August 10, 
 1920) : 
 
 The responsible leaders of the regime have frequently 
 and openly boasted that they are willing to sign agree- 
 ments and undertakings with foreign powers while not 
 having the slightest intention of observing such under- 
 takings or carrying out such agreements. 
 
 Moreover, it is within the knowledge of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States that the Bolshevist Govern-
 
 146 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 ment is itself subject to the control of a political faction 
 with extensive international ramifications through the 
 Third Internationale, and that this body, which is heavily 
 subsidized by the Bolshevist Government from the public 
 revenues of Russia, has for its openly avowed aim the 
 promotion of Bolshevist revolutions throughout the 
 world. The leaders of the Bolsheviki have boasted that 
 their promises of non-interference with other nations 
 would in nowise bind the agents of this body. 
 
 The preamble to the Soviet constitution declares that 
 one of the main objects in forming a Soviet government 
 is to use it "for the victory of socialism in all lands." 
 In the preamble of the constitution of the Communist 
 Internationale we find the following: 
 
 The object of the Communist International is a strug- 
 gle with force of arms for the suppression of the inter- 
 national bourgeoisie, and the creation of an International 
 Soviet Republic, as a transitional stage for the complete 
 suppression of the State. 
 
 At its Second Congress, July, 1920, this Internationale 
 expressed itself even more strongly: 
 
 The Communist International fully and unreservedly 
 upholds the gains of the great proletarian revolution in 
 Russia, the first victorious socialist revolution in the 
 world's history, and calls upon all workers to follow 
 the same road. The Communist International makes it 
 its duty to support by all the power at its disposal every 
 Soviet Republic wherever it may be formed. 
 
 Among the "slogans" of the dominating Russian 
 Communist Party presented at that gathering were 
 these:
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 147 
 
 Through the III International to the world dictator- 
 ship of the proletariat, and through the dictatorship of 
 the proletariat to the abolition of classes and the most 
 complete liberation of mankind. 
 
 Long live the III International, which is fighting to 
 establish an International Soviet of Workmen's Deputies. 
 
 The most important action taken at this congress was 
 the formulation of the "twenty-one points." The send- 
 ing of these points as an ultimatum to all the socialist 
 parties of Europe had the following results: 
 
 First, the powerful Independent Socialist Party in 
 Germany was split and the majority faction entered the 
 Third Internationale, accepting the domination of Mos- 
 cow and all the twenty-one points. 
 
 Second, the same result occurred in the congress of 
 the French Socialist Party in December, 1920. 
 
 Third, a powerful element in the Italian Socialist 
 Party took the same action in the middle of February, 
 the remainder of the party also adhering to the Third 
 Internationale but demanding a certain measure of 
 autonomy. Similar results occurred in other European 
 countries. A powerful group of socialist and labor or- 
 ganizations, refusing to repudiate or condemn the Com- 
 munist Internationale, also decided not to enter into it 
 at the present moment but to attempt to form a new 
 international organization in which the communist par- 
 ties are to be an important part. 
 
 Thus the effort of the communists to control the 
 socialist parties of Europe has made considerable prog- 
 ress within the last year, though failing to capture the 
 movement as a whole and failing also to convert the
 
 148 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 majority of labor unionists, with the possible exception 
 of Italy. 
 
 The revolutionary communist movement directed from 
 Moscow is, then, a formidable force on the continent of 
 Europe. Let us now recall that among the most im- 
 portant of the twenty-one revolutionary points accepted 
 by all adhering organizations are the following: 
 
 In almost all the countries of Europe and America the 
 class war is entering the phase of civil war. Under such 
 conditions Communists can have no confidence in bour- 
 geois legality. They are bound to create everywhere 
 a parallel illegal organization, which at the decisive mo- 
 ment will help the party to fulfil its duty towards the 
 Revolution. . . . 
 
 All decisions of the Congress of the Communist Inter- 
 national, as also the decisions of its Executive Commit- 
 tee, are binding for all parties belonging to the Com- 
 munist International. 
 
 When in the Martens case ex-Secretary of Labor, 
 W. B. Wilson, decided that the Russian Communist 
 Party was an organization that " advocates the over- 
 throw by violence of the Government of the United 
 States," the Administration had every possible docu- 
 mentary evidence to prove its case. 
 
 Naturally the belief of the Bolshevists in impending 
 revolt fluctuates with their victories and defeats. But 
 the utility to the Soviet Government of revolutionary 
 agitation and revolutionary propaganda and violence in 
 all countries continues regardless of such contingencies. 
 We have noted Trotzky's optimism when his armies were 
 in Poland. Again, when the armies of General Wrangel 
 were overthrown in November, 1920, Lenin declared:
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 149 
 
 This triumph of bolshevism is the most gigantic ever 
 dreamed of, but the victory is incomplete until every 
 part of Europe has been revolutionized. 
 
 A month later, in an open letter to the Italian social- 
 ists quoted in Pravda, December 10, 1920, Lenin fear- 
 ing that the revolutionary movement which began in the 
 seizure of factories by the Italian metal workers might 
 be checked by the refusal of foreign capitalists to furnish 
 the indispensable coal and iron, gave this advice : 
 
 Hasten the revolution in England, in France, in 
 America if these countries decide to blockade the pro- 
 letariat of the Italian Proletarian Republic. 
 
 At the National Congress of the Soviets on December 
 23, the leading economic authority among the Commis- 
 saries, Rykoff, said (See Pravda, December 25) : 
 
 With the possibility of international relations and the 
 coming communistic revolution in western Europe, and 
 since we are nearing our chief aim, the European con- 
 gress of Soviets, we have to direct our attention to the 
 development of those branches of our economic life which 
 will come to our lot in the case of distribution of work 
 among ourselves and western soviet Europe. 
 
 We must note in these expressions that the Bolshevists 
 find no contradiction between the movement for a trade 
 agreement and the continued movement for world revolt. 
 Indeed, Lenin has advocated arrangements with foreign 
 capitalists from the very beginning of the Bolshevik 
 regime, during the period of the revolutions in Hungary 
 and Bavaria, as well as the wars of conquest against
 
 150 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 the border states, and during all the revolutionary plots 
 set on foot by the Third Internationale. 
 
 In a speech (quoted in Pravda, November 30, 1920) 
 Lenin explains: 
 
 We have found the right way to revolution, but this 
 way is not a direct one ; it runs in zig zags. 
 
 In the letter to the Italian communists already quoted 
 Lenin advises them that in order to bring the country 
 to revolution at the earliest possible moment which he 
 believes will be very soon in Italy it is necessary to 
 move first to the right and then to the left. The failure 
 of the Italian revolutionary movement in October and 
 of the German revolutionary movement in March led 
 Lenin to propose one of his momentary zig zags or move- 
 ments to the right. The date for the big revolutionary 
 movements in Europe has been postponed for a year or 
 two. As Trotzky is reported recently to have declared : 
 
 The proletarian revolution in America and Europe 
 will be found if not in the approaching months then 
 in the approaching years. 
 
 Touching upon the same subject at the International 
 Communist Congress in July, 1920, Zinovieff trucu- 
 lently exclaimed: 
 
 "Well, what about it?" we shall say to every bour- 
 geois: "Yes, perhaps we were wrong; not one year, but 
 two or three will be necessary for all Europe to become 
 Soviet. You still have a short period of grace before 
 you will be destroyed. But if you have now become 
 so modest that you rejoice at these few months of grace,
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 151 
 
 or a few years, then we, in any case, congratulate you 
 on your unusual modesty." 
 
 It is the belief, however, of Zinovieff and of all the 
 Bolshevist leaders that even if revolutions are not ma- 
 terializing very rapidly or as speedily as expected that 
 the revolutionary movement which is so valuable to the 
 communists in other particulars is continuing to spread 
 and that because of it they can rely more and more 
 upon support and aid in one form or another from 
 the entire labor movement of Europe. In other words, 
 they believe that their propaganda is bearing more and 
 more fruit and there is much to support their view. In 
 an article in the Petrograd Pravda, November 7, 1920, 
 Zinovieff wrote: 
 
 Three years ago, we were absolutely alone on the inter- 
 national arena. We know and believed that the inter- 
 national proletariat would understand and appreciate 
 our movements, and would be with us. But at the same 
 time we could not fail to see that at that time the inter- 
 tional proletariat as yet was not with us. 
 
 And how all this has now been radically changed! 
 Yes, the International Proletarian Revolution is devel- 
 oping much less rapidly than we had wished. But 
 never-the-less it moves forward. 
 
 Why have the Imperialist giants, the robber League of 
 Nations, and the very rich and blood-thirsty bourgeoisie 
 of England, France, and America failed to date to de- 
 stroy the single proletarian Republic Soviet Russia? 
 But they did not do this solely because the working class 
 of Europe and America is in its heart behind us. 
 
 The Bolshevist leaders realize and confess that the 
 strength of their movement in Russia is very largely
 
 152 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 due to the support they have obtained from certain 
 elements of labor outside of Russia. For in addition 
 to the European revolutionary parties and factions 
 already referred to other more or less neutral labor 
 bodies have undoubtedly given them very valuable moral 
 and defensive support. 
 
 All the successes of Soviet policy, to whatever ex- 
 traneous causes they may be due, are attributed by the 
 Bolshevists to the merit of their foreign propaganda 
 and the invincibility of their international movement. 
 This may be seen from a speech delivered by Lenin 
 at a convention of the Communist Party in Moscow 
 (Krasnaya Gazetta, November 23, 1920) : 
 
 The world revolution, by whose aid alone we can win, 
 does not mature at the speed with which we hoped for 
 in the beginning. 
 
 But we have obtained not merely a breathing spell, 
 but the possibility of existing amidst bourgeois countries. 
 This means that the revolution has already matured 
 within those countries. 
 
 After a period of three years, the Imperialists are 
 compelled to give up their struggle against Russia which 
 has, in comparison with their own military resources, 
 practically none. 
 
 Our foes, burning with desire to crush us by armed 
 force, are now compelled to conclude agreements with 
 us, and to contribute to our consolidation and strength- 
 ening. 
 
 At the Communist Congress earlier in the year Lenin 
 had said (see Soviet Russia, August 23, 1920) : 
 
 We not only won over to our side the workers of all 
 countries, but also succeeded in winning the bourgeoisie
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 153 
 
 of the small countries, for the imperialists oppress not 
 only the workers of their countries but also the bour- 
 geoisie of the small nations. You know how we "won 
 over the wavering middle class within the advanced 
 countries. 
 
 This absolute disintegration of our adversaries who 
 were sure of their power, shows that they are but a 
 handful of capitalist beasts at odds among themselves 
 and absolutely powerless to fight us. 
 
 Here the Bolshevist chief discloses the secret of such 
 "success" as he has been able to attain throughout 
 the world: his propaganda has succeeded in deceiving 
 not only a large number of workingmen but also con- 
 siderable elements of the middle classes. 
 
 Taking up some remarks of Lenin's at the Tenth 
 Congress of the Socialist Russian Party in March, 1921, 
 the Bolshevist press of America, assisted by pro-Bol- 
 shevist "liberal" publications, by the yellow press, and 
 by commercially directed newspapers blinded by short- 
 sighted greed, all joined together to claim that he had 
 abandoned world revolution together with communism 
 and all the other foundations of Bolshevism. What 
 Lenin actually said was: "Were we to suppose that 
 presently we would get help in the form of a firmly 
 established proletarian revolution, we would be lunatics, ' ' 
 this speech being made in answer to a very small group 
 of ultra-extremists who opposed trade agreements, not 
 realizing that they were entirely consistent with the 
 policy of world revolution. Lenin's words are very 
 carefully chosen. He does not say that help from a 
 proletarian revolution is not to be expected; he says 
 only that early help from "a firmly established" pro- 
 letarian revolution cannot be counted upon. In other
 
 154 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 words, he still expects the revolutionary movement to 
 develop with steadily increasing intensity and to reach 
 such a point that it will be helpful to the Soviets, even 
 economically, before the lapse of many years. 
 
 Eeferring to the question of world revolution, Lenin 
 said: 
 
 Aid is coming from the Western European countries. 
 It is not coming as fast as we should like it, but it is 
 coming nevertheless and gathering strength. Of course, 
 the world revolution has made a great step forward, in 
 comparison with last year. We have learned to under- 
 stand during the last three years that basing ourselves 
 on an international revolution does not mean calculating 
 on a definite date, and that the increasing rapidity of 
 development may bring a revolution in the spring 
 (1921) or it may not. Of course, the Communist In- 
 ternational which last year existed merely in the form 
 of proclamations is now existing as an independent party 
 in every country. ... In Germany, France and Italy 
 the Communist International has become not only the 
 centre of the labor movement but the focus of attention 
 for the whole political life of those countries. This is 
 our conquest, and no one can deprive us of it. The 
 world revolution is growing stronger, while the economic 
 crisis in Europe is getting worse at the same time. 
 
 But, at any rate, were we to draw from this the 
 conclusion that help would come from there within a 
 brief period in the shape of a solid proletarian revolu- 
 tion, we would be simply lunatics; but in this hall, I 
 feel certain, there are none such. We must, therefore, 
 know how to adapt our activity to the mutual class 
 relations existing within our own and other countries, 
 that we may be able for a long time to retain the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat and, at least gradually, 
 to cure all the ills and crises besetting us. Only such 
 a view of the problem will be correct and sober. 
 (Pravda, March 10, 1921.)'
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 155 
 
 Surely all this is a far cry from "abandoning the 
 world revolution!" 
 
 It was as late as July, 1920, that the Third Internation- 
 ale declared that ' ' in nearly every country of Europe and 
 America the class struggle is entering upon the phase 
 of civil war while as late as December (1920) it con- 
 verted the French Socialist majority to that view. 
 Discouraging and encouraging events have taken place 
 since that time, but the total result of all revolu- 
 tionary movements during recent months is far from 
 such as to discourage visionary fanatics like the Bol- 
 shevists. At the meeting of March 15 Kameneff made 
 a report on foreign policy to the Tenth Congress of 
 the Russian Communist Party: 
 
 "We must consider," began Kameneff, "our relations 
 with the capitalist states, seeing that our supposition 
 of the speedy assistance which should come to us from 
 Western Europe in the form of a world revolution has 
 not been carried out with the rapidity for which we 
 hoped. Though counting on the world revolution, we 
 must shape our practical policy in such a way that it 
 will be possible to take action at any time, should the 
 course of world development force us to fight for the 
 existence of our isolated Soviet Republic. 
 
 The words italicized again give a very satisfactory 
 portrayal of the precise state of the Bolshevist mind 
 as regards world revolution. The rest of this speech 
 develops the grounds for the Bolshevist hopes. While 
 indicating the usual state of extreme ignorance, these 
 remarks are important as showing the pro-German pre- 
 judices, the hatred of America and England, the ex- 
 pectation of the Bolshevists that they will participate in 
 future wars (it is strange that the pacifist extremists
 
 156 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 /- 
 
 insist upon continuing their support of these militaristic 
 and imperialistic fanatics) and also the willingness of the 
 Soviets to arm the Asiatic against the European races. 
 Kftmeneff continues: 
 
 The great Powers have gained their end. They have 
 succeeded in dividing up the world between them. The 
 victorious powers have not only subjugated colonies and 
 semi-colonies, but many countries such as Austria and 
 Germany, are entirely dependent on them. A small 
 party of the richest countries has divided up the world, 
 converting the most cultured countries in Europe, Ger- 
 many and Austria, into their enslaved vassals. 
 
 The danger of a new world war is arising. The strug- 
 gle will be for the possession of the shores of the Pacific 
 Ocean and will take place between the former Allies, 
 England and America, while Japan will support Eng- 
 land. It may be presumed that all the capitalist states 
 will again be involved in this new struggle, only a rising 
 of the world proletariat can prevent this new world 
 catastrophe. 
 
 Soviet Russia took no part in the division of the 
 world. Thanks to the three years' war Soviet Russia 
 gained the right to an independent existence. This in- 
 dependence will make it possible for us to take up sides 
 in the various historical events of the world. . . . 
 
 Soviet Russia is not isolated. Soviet Russia only in 
 the "West borders on capitalist states. In the East her 
 neighbour is truly revolutionary Asia. The fact that 
 we still exist is explained by the circumstance that a 
 balance of power has been created between capitalist 
 Europe and revolutionary Asia. Soviet Russia is situ- 
 ated half way between the East and West. 
 
 In a long communication to the Independent Labor 
 Party the Third Internationale last summer outlined 
 another war this time it was a war of the world against
 
 WORLD REVOLUTION 157 
 
 Great Britain and America. This also is a war from 
 which the Bolshevists hoped to gain: 
 
 It is probable that when throwing off the chains of 
 the capitalist Governments, the revolutionary proletariat 
 of Europe will meet the resistance of Anglo-Saxon capi- 
 tal in the persons of British and American capitalists, 
 who will attempt to blockade it. It is then possible the 
 revolutionary proletariat of Europe will arise in union 
 with the peoples of the East and commence a revolu- 
 tionary struggle, the scene of which will be the entire 
 world, to deal the final blow at British and American 
 capitalists. 
 
 The pro-German tendency of the propaganda is al- 
 ways in evidence. The Bolshevists are particularly 
 friendly to the Germans in the attack on the Versailles 
 Treaty. We may see an illustration of this in a speech 
 of Lenin's early in 1920: 
 
 The Germans are, above all, our auxiliaries because 
 their hope of escaping from the penal clauses of the 
 Peace treaty rests on causing disorder and agitation 
 with a view to profit by the general confusion which 
 will then arise. They seek revenge we revolution. 
 
 This friendliness to the German junkers is also seen 
 in a statement of Trotzky when he was at the Polish 
 front : 
 
 It is said that the Russian communists were the serfs 
 of the Prussian junkers, but that must not weigh with 
 us. It must not be forgotten that organized Germany 
 constitutes a danger to world imperialism, and nothing 
 must oppose an understanding with Germany for the 
 destruction of the imperialist governments of Europe.
 
 '158 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 We prefer such an understanding to fraternization with 
 the so-called free countries. 
 
 At the same time the Bolshevists have endeavored to 
 line up for war upon England and France, alongside the 
 junkers, the junkers' bitter enemies, the German com- 
 munists. 
 
 The revolutionary German socialist leader Crispien, 
 just returned from a visit to Russia at the invitation 
 of the Soviets declared: 
 
 The Russian Soviet Government intended to make war 
 on France if the Polish campaign had been successful, 
 and England also would have been attacked. The Soviets 
 were counting on the aid of the German communists." 
 (From Crispien 's speech at the Halle Congress of the 
 Independent Socialist Party October 13, 1920.) 
 
 While the Soviets rely largely upon wars out of which 
 revolutions are expected to arise, they rely still more 
 upon the direct results of revolutionary propaganda and 
 organization through the Third Internationale. Their 
 complicity in the German revolutionary movement of 
 March, 1921, for example, is proved by the open asser- 
 tions of the Moscow communist organ in Berlin, Die 
 Rote Fahne. 
 
 In spite of such absolutely conclusive evidence and 
 of innumerable other instances of equally stupid Bolshe- 
 vist duplicity several entirely conservative non-Bolshe- 
 vist newspapers in America and England insisted that 
 it was incredible that Moscow could at the same time be 
 instigating revolutions and seeking trade by govern- 
 mental agreements!
 
 X 
 
 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 
 
 THE Third Internationale is the child of the Russian 
 Communist Party. It was created here, in the Kremlin 
 on the initiative of the Communist Party of Russia. The 
 Executive Committee of the Third Internationale is in 
 our own hands. (Report of Radek, Secretary of Third 
 Internationale, to Ninth Congress of Russian Communist 
 Party Pravda, April 3rd, 1920.) 
 
 At the Second Congress of the Communist Interna- 
 tionale held, at Moscow in August, 1920, the following 
 resolution was passed: 
 
 The World Congress is the supreme organ of the Com- 
 munist International. 
 
 The World Congress elects an Executive Committee 
 of the Communist International which serves as the lead- 
 ing organ in the intervals between the (annual) World 
 Congresses. 
 
 In his report to the Congress, President Zinoviev 
 further explained the dictatorial powers possessed by 
 the Moscow Executive: 
 
 The Congress has also emphasized the need of a united 
 Communist International organization and has worked 
 out its statute, according to which the executive com- 
 mittee of the III International is given very wide powers, 
 
 159
 
 160 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 including that of expelling from the International a 
 whole party for violation of discipline. 
 
 Another resolution passed unanimously by the Con- 
 gress indicated that the control of the Russian Commu- 
 nist Party over this world revolutionary movement is 
 absolute. This resolution declared: 
 
 The need of a strong world unity of the proletariat 
 is too evident to allow discussion of any kind of autonomy. 
 
 Although there are "only" five Russians on the Inter- 
 national Executive Committee, as a matter of fact, all 
 the other ten members were practically appointed by 
 the Russian Bolshevists and their names indicate ab- 
 solute subserviency, since with one or two exceptions 
 they have little or no representative capacity. For 
 example, the late John Reed was selected to represent 
 America! With the sole exception of Italy, only the 
 most extreme of extremists were chosen. Moreover the 
 permanent bureau or directing body of the Executive 
 Committee consists of three Russians out of five mem- 
 bers: Zinoviev, Bukharin and Radek. 
 
 This body now claims to have the sole right to repre- 
 sent the proletariat of the world and in their name pro- 
 poses to overthrow all governments ! Revolutionists who 
 do not obey orders, such as d'Arragona, head of the Con- 
 federation of Labor of Italy, are immediately branded 
 as traitors to the working-class. 
 
 The application of this principle of the divine right 
 of the Russian Bolshevists to control "the world revolu- 
 tion" was amusingly represented at the Congress in the
 
 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 161 
 
 speeches of Lenin dealing with, the revolutionary move- 
 ment in Great Britain. Here are some passages, as 
 reported in the Bolshevist press: 
 
 Lenin protests against the supposition that the pecu- 
 liar situation of the English labor movement requires 
 that the decision as to the line of conduct of the British 
 Socialist Party should be left in the latter 's free judg- 
 ment. Lenin does not understand why in such a case 
 this Congress and this International are necessary. 
 
 Such tactics should be considered one of the worst 
 traditions left by the activity of the II International. 
 The 2nd Congress of the III International will, of course, 
 act differently and will discuss in detail in the proper 
 committee all the conditions of the English labor move- 
 ment and the tasks resulting therefrom. . . . 
 
 Despite the opinion of Comrade MacLean, the Labor 
 Party does not express the political state of mind of 
 the working class of England as organized in trade- 
 unions; it expresses the views and state of mind of its 
 leaders, who are the most bourgeois, reactionary hand- 
 maid of British Imperialism. It is necessary that the 
 party should effectively represent the ideology and in- 
 terests of the proletariat. . . . 
 
 Furthermore, these traitors are at the head of the 
 Labor Party which presents an unprecedented situation, 
 for the latter expresses the political will of 4,000,000 
 workmen organized in its ranks. . . . 
 
 You are constantly speaking of the differences between 
 the conditions in England and those in other countries. 
 In so far as you enter the Communist International, you 
 must remember that you must be guided not only by 
 the experience of England but also by general revolu- 
 tionary experience. 
 
 After the speech of Comrade Lenin the theses are put 
 to a vote. Comrade Zinoviev proposed to vote first, and 
 separately, on the thesis relating to the entrance of the
 
 162 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 British Socialist Party into the Independent Labor 
 Party of England. This Thesis is adopted by a majority 
 of 48 to 34 with two abstaining. 
 
 This amazing act of coercion against the left wing of 
 British labor, as the vote shows, was almost too much 
 even for the hand-picked and thoroughly disciplined 
 delegates of the Communist Internationale. Lenin's 
 plan to capture the Independent Labor Party in this 
 manner was, doubtless, not quite so wild as the plan of 
 the British Communist delegates who were voted down. 
 These latter wished to attack not only the British Labor 
 Party, though it is pro-Soviet in its foreign policy, but 
 also the revolutionary Independent Labor Party which 
 expresses the warmest admiration for Sovietism in 
 Russia, but does not wish to have it in England and 
 will not take orders from Moscow further than leaving 
 the Second and Socialist Internationale at Moscow's 
 suggestion. Lenin's tactics on the surface were some- 
 what less impractical. But they were futile in any event 
 as the Independent Labor Party, at its succeeding con- 
 gress, repudiated Communism by an overwhelming ma- 
 jority, leading to the secession of the small minority of 
 Communists as ordered by Lenin for all countries. 
 Whether, from the Communist-revolutionary standpoint, 
 this outcome in Great Britain justified Lenin's tactics 
 or not, the British Communists were allowed little to 
 say on the subject. 
 
 The autocratic control of Moscow is the key to the 
 tactics of the Third Internationale. The Communists 
 are unanimously agreed that if it is to succeed their 
 revolution must be a world revolution. They are unan- 
 imously agreed that it must therefore have a highly
 
 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 163 
 
 centralized control. They are equally agreed that Soviet 
 Russia is the only "proletarian" country to-day, that 
 it has led the world in revolutionary tactics, that it has 
 started the world revolution and organized the only 
 genuinely proletarian internationale. They are agreed, 
 too, that the iron dictatorship established in Soviet Rus- 
 sia and within the Russian Communist Party furnishes 
 a model for the international organization. 
 
 This is the feeling of the extreme revolutionists and 
 communists of all countries. But Moscow goes much 
 farther. It feels that the fate of Soviet Russia carries 
 with it the fate of the world revolution and that there- 
 fore all that pertains to its safety and welfare must be 
 given first consideration. It feels that as the light has 
 come from Soviet Russia the light must continue to come 
 from Soviet Russia. It feels that Russia has already 
 experienced what other countries must experience. Rus- 
 sia is the older sister, the others must follow in her 
 foot-steps. None of these ideas are shared even by the 
 extremists of other countries. Lenin sometimes says, 
 and possibly believes, he is allowing for the divergencies 
 of other countries and treating them as equals. But 
 this is scarcely consonant with his astounding twenty-one 
 points, by which he drove away even such ardent and 
 docile supporters as the leaders of the Italian Socialists. 
 His real state of mind is portrayed in his speech before 
 the All-Russian Political Education Conference (Novem- 
 ber 5th, 1920), in which he said: 
 
 The union of all great capitalist countries of the world 
 against Russia, against Soviet Russia this is the whole 
 business of the present international political situation, 
 and we must be entirely clear as to the fact that the
 
 164 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 fate of hundreds of millions of workers in the capitalist 
 countries depends on this fact. 
 
 In our country we experienced such a manifold shap- 
 ing of events in the Kerensky period, among the Social 
 Revolutionists and the Social Democrats, such a varie- 
 gated color scheme in the various towns of Russia, that 
 we may say that we have been tested more than any other 
 people. If we look toward Western Europe we shall 
 see that the same thing is now going on there that hap- 
 pened in our country. We are beholding a repetition 
 of our own history. 
 
 This is nothing less than revolutionary chauvinism, 
 similar to the doctrine of the French revolutionists when 
 they undertook to force their creed on other peoples 
 by the aid of the bayonet. But it is infinitely more 
 crude. For while France was one of the most advanced 
 countries of Europe, Soviet Russia is one of the most 
 backward. 
 
 The Communist Internationale is now functioning in 
 the United States and declares as its principal imme- 
 diate object the destruction of the American Federation 
 of Labor. By methods of secrecy, by its hold upon cer- 
 tain entirely foreign elements who do not understand 
 anything about American conditions or American labor 
 organizations, by the laid of the large sums it receives 
 from Russia and by the sympathy and assistance it 
 secures from our numerous "parlor Bolshevists" this 
 organization is able to give considerable trouble to the 
 American Labor movement. 
 
 The danger very largely takes the form of publications 
 supporting the Soviet cause in the United States. Only 
 a few of these are openly Communist. But a large num- 
 ber of publications and writers take the Communist posi-
 
 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 165 
 
 tion of hostility with regard to the Federation of Labor 
 combined with friendship to Bolshevism. There can be 
 no doubt that some of them are subsidized by Moscow. 
 A resolution passed by the Second Congress of the Com- 
 munist Internationale declared: 
 
 The Communist parties must create a new type of 
 periodical press for extensive circulation among the 
 workmen; (1) Lawful publications in which the Com- 
 munists without calling themselves such and without 
 mentioning their connection with the party, would learn 
 to utilize the slightest possibility allowed by the laws. 
 (2) Illegal sheets. 
 
 One of the first actions taken by the new Bolshevist 
 Government after it seized power was to vote money 
 for such purposes. Here is one of its first decrees: 
 
 The Soviet of People's Commissaries deems it neces- 
 sary to bring all possible means, including money to 
 the aid of the Left International Wing of the workers' 
 movement in all lands, quite regardless of whether these 
 countries are at war or in alliance with Russia; or 
 whether they are neutral. 
 
 To that end the Soviet of People's Commissaries, 
 orders to appropriate for the needs of the revolutionary 
 international movement 2,000,000 rubles, to be taken 
 charge of by the foreign representative of the Commis- 
 sariat of Foreign Affairs. 
 (Signed) 
 
 President, Soviet People's Commissaries, 
 
 VI. Ulianoff (Lenin) 
 (Signed) 
 
 People's Commissary of Foreign Affairs, 
 
 L. Trotzky. 
 (Published in Izvestia, Dec, 13, 1917, p. 9.)
 
 166 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Far from denying this governmentally subsidized 
 propaganda the entire Bolshevist press of the world 
 openly boasts of it. 
 
 In the report of the Executive Committee of the Com- 
 munist Internationale to the Second World Congress of 
 the Communist Internationale, Zinoviev wrote : 
 
 Russian workmen, to whom the progressive workmen 
 of other countries have rendered brotherly assistance 
 during the course of two decades, have considered it 
 their proletarian duty now to render similar brotherly 
 assistance to the struggling proletariat that is in more 
 difficult material circumstances. 
 
 With respect to the assistance in money which the 
 Communist International has rendered to brotherly par- 
 ties, the yellow Social Democrats, with the support of 
 the tatlers of the bourgeoisie press, have raised a lot 
 of noise in various countries of Europe. People who 
 do not consider it disgraceful to use material support 
 given by the brigand-like League of Nations raise shouts 
 of protest because the workmen (!) of one country sup- 
 port their brothers in another country. 
 
 The workmen themselves did not take this attitude 
 toward the matter. The Italian Communists, for ex- 
 ample, practically declared quite openly that i^ome of 
 their party organizations were able to be founded only 
 because the Communist International rendered brotherly 
 assistance to the Italian workmen. The workmen com- 
 munists in other countries have made similar declara- 
 tions. . . . 
 
 The entire western European bourgeois press, which 
 is bought up by capital, has not ceased to throw dirt 
 at communism because of the subsidy which the daily 
 British Socialist paper, "Daily Herald," was receiving 
 from the Russian proletariat. 
 
 This last statement was publicly denied by the Lon-
 
 THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 167 
 
 don Daily Herald, but many facts are known to point in 
 the contrary direction. It will be noted that the Bol- 
 shevists treat the entire labor press and even the non- 
 Bolshevist Socialist press as "bourgeois." 
 
 The Bolshevists regard their enormous expenditures 
 in mendacious propaganda as having been brilliantly 
 successful and there is some ground for their claim. 
 Zinoviev has recently summed up this success at length 
 in Pravda, November 7, 1920. We note a few sentences : 
 
 The campaign of slander was very well organized by 
 the bourgeoisie and by its lackeys from the II "Inter- 
 nationale"; it was organised, one may say, scientifically 
 and with talent. But nevertheless, we can say with the 
 greatest pride, that we came out victorious from this 
 unequal struggle. . . . 
 
 Up to the present, the international proletariat as a 
 whole was on the defensive, and now it will be able 
 to assume the offensive. . . . 
 
 When Soviet troops were at the gates of Warsaw, 
 it became particularly clear that the international pro- 
 letariat is entering on a stage which can be called : pass- 
 ing from the defensive to the offensive. . . . 
 
 The Council of Action in London, which showed such 
 brilliant activity for a couple of weeks, was undoubtedly 
 the forerunner of English Soviets of Workmen's Depu- 
 ties. 
 
 Zinoviev 's reference to the Second Internationale also 
 includes as non-proletarian and bourgeois the entire 
 non-Bolshevist Labor Union and Socialist press of 
 Europe. 
 
 Krassin has also made recent reference to the success 
 of the Soviet propaganda, frankly stating that "the 
 hostility of Great Britain had been overcome by propa-
 
 168 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 ganda." If we recall the ceaseless campaign of falsifica- 
 tion concerning not only Russia but the entire labor 
 movement of the world that is being carried on by the 
 London Daily Herald and other Sovietist or pro-Soviet 
 organs of Great Britain, circulated not only in that 
 country but all over the world, we can realize the 
 enormous damage that has been inflicted upon the British 
 labor movement by the gold which the Bolshevists have 
 looted from the poverty-stricken population of Kussia.
 
 iTHE NEW RED LABOR UNION INTER- 
 NATIONALE 
 
 OPERATING solely in the field of politics, propaganda, 
 and insurrection the Communist Internationale was not 
 a perfect instrument for the purposes of the Soviets. 
 The Communist, or Third Internationale, from its found- 
 ation in March, 1919, had directed its operations mainly, 
 not against the bourgeoisie, but against what it calls 
 "bourgeois" labor as represented in the Second or 
 Socialist Internationale. But it soon discovered that the 
 most formidable labor enemies of Bolshevism are not the 
 political Socialists of the Right or of the Center (the 
 orthodox Marxist followers of Kautsky, Longuet, etc.) 
 but the labor unions of the world, from the American 
 Federation of Labor to the British and German unions 
 and even the syndicalistic French Confederation. 
 
 At the Congress of the Communist Internationale at 
 Moscow in the summer of 1920, Lenin issued the follow- 
 ing declaration of war against organized labor, thinly 
 veiled as a war against leaders: 
 
 Our main enemy is title opportunism in the upper 
 ranks of tlie labor movement. This is not a Socialist or 
 proletarian, but a bourgeois movement. That these 
 leaders of the labor movement are defending the bour- 
 geoisie better than the bourgeoisie itself, and that with- 
 out their assistance the bourgeoisie could not maintain 
 
 169
 
 170 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 itself is shown not only by the regime of Kerensky, 
 but also by the present democratic republic in Germany, 
 and by the attitude of Albert Thomas and Henderson 
 toward their bourgeois Governments. Here is our main 
 enemy; we must triumph over this enemy, and leave this 
 Congress with a unanimous and firm decision to carry 
 this struggle through to the end in att countries. This. 
 is our main task. 
 
 If that part of the labor movement whicE utterly repu- 
 diates Bolshevism is to be called "the upper ranks" then 
 recent elections throughout the labor movement of 
 Europe have proven that fully three-fourths of the mem- 
 bership is to be so classified. 
 
 Bolshevist enmity makes no distinction between the 
 American Federation of Labor and the European unions 
 adhering to the Amsterdam International Federation of 
 Trade Unions. The fact that this international body 
 was ready to declare not only a general strike but a 
 food blockade of the Polish people and to forcibly inter- 
 rupt the shipment of food and munitions to Poland, 
 all in order to aid the Soviets to accomplish their declared 
 purpose of conquering the Poles, counted for nothing 
 in the minds of the would-be world dictators at Moscow. 
 In spite of the servile attitude of nearly all the political 
 parties of the Second, or Socialist, Internationale and 
 of the controlling elements in the Amsterdam Trades 
 Union Internationale, the Moscow dictators administer 
 nothing but rebuffs to everybody who refuses to accept 
 their absolute rule and demand that all existing organ- 
 izations be wholly reshaped according to Moscow's 
 revolutionary specifications. 
 
 The Bolshevists therefore decided at Moscow, last
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 171 
 
 July, to form a new Internationale of Red Labor Unions. 
 This organization is based upon the fictitious member- 
 ship of five millions claimed by the official Russian 
 Soviet trade unions, upon the temporary adhesion of 
 the Italian Confederation of Labor with its two million, 
 members although this organization is at present rather 
 outside than inside the Communist Internationale, and 
 upon lesser but equally doubtful claims in other coun- 
 tries. The Communist Internationale adopted, by an 
 overwhelming majority, the following amendment pro- 
 posed by Radek in connection with this new Red Inter- 
 nationale : 
 
 It is the one weapon of the world revolutionary move- 
 ment against the yellow International, because the prin- 
 cipal enemy of the revolutionary proletariat is not Brus- 
 sels but Amsterdam that is the yellow international of 
 trade union organizations. By overthrowing Amster- 
 dam we shall deal the most terrible blow to the capital- 
 istic order, but this blow can be dealt only by the Red 
 International of trade-unions. 
 
 This Red Internationale is somewhat stronger than 
 at first appears. While it has comparatively little 
 direct support from the labor unions, with the ex- 
 ception of the Latin countries, it has a very strong 
 support from the newly formed Communist par- 
 ties created during the last six months by the split of 
 the Socialist parties according to Moscow orders in 
 several European countries. Thus a majority of the 
 Socialist Party members of France, through the newly 
 created Communist Party, have accepted the dictator- 
 ship of the Moscow Communist Internationale, including
 
 172 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 the entire twenty-one points. A powerful faction of the 
 Socialists in Germany, now organized as the Communist 
 Party and including a million or two supporters, has 
 taken the same action. And, finally, in Italy both the 
 Communist Party and the Socialist Party adhere to the 
 Third Internationale and accept the twenty-one points, 
 although the latter also claims a certain measure of 
 autonomy. The leadership of all these movements is 
 largely in the hands of ''intellectuals" and outsiders, 
 non-members of the labor unions. This is markedly the 
 case with the Italian Communist Party. But the influ- 
 ence on labor is, nevertheless, formidable. 
 jp Of Moscow's twenty-one points accepted by all these 
 so-called labor parties, points nine and ten refer to 
 organized labor. They are as follows: 
 
 9. Every party which desires to join the Communist 
 Internationale must systematically and constantly de- 
 velop a communist activity within the trades unions, 
 the workmen's and factory councils, the consumers' 
 societies and other mass organizations of the workmen. 
 "Within these organizations it is necessary to organize 
 Communist ''cells" which by constant, perseverant work 
 shall win the trades unions, &c., over to the cause of 
 Communism. The "cells" are obliged in their daily 
 work to unmask everywhere the treason of the social- 
 patriots and the fickleness of the "Centre." The Com- 
 munist "cells" must be completely subordinated to the 
 whole party. 
 
 10. Every party belonging to the Third Internationale 
 is obliged to wage a stubborn war against the Amster- 
 dam "Internationale" of the yellow trade unions. They 
 must most emphatically propagate among the unions of 
 organized workmen the necessity of a breach with the 
 yellow Amsterdam Internationale. They must support
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 173 
 
 by all means the rising international unification of red 
 trade unions which join the Communist Internationale. 
 
 If it is recalled that the orders of the Moscow Execu- 
 tive Committee are absolute over all Communist organ- 
 izations and that Moscow is willing to spend the last 
 gold ruble of the heritage of the Russian people for the 
 disruptive purposes it may be seen that the danger 
 threatening the labor union movement of Continental 
 Europe is considerable. Indeed the French C. G. T. 
 was saved for the cause of labor unionism at the last 
 meeting of the Council only by a very narrow margin 
 of votes. The struggle was most unequal. There is no 
 bribery and corruption fund available for the legitimate 
 labor unions to counterbalance the colossal corruption 
 fund of Moscow. For every dollar legitimately raised 
 and expended by organized labor in self-defense, the 
 Communists, from the loot they have taken from Russian 
 workmen and peasants, are able to spend a thousand. 
 
 The situation in Great Britain is similar, though some- 
 what less acute. Because of the absence of any powerful 
 Communist political party, the Soviets are forced in that 
 country to act mainly through the subsidy of the labor 
 press and other propaganda, which Krassin admits ob- 
 tained for the Communists the signing of the British 
 trade agreement. 
 
 The purpose of the new organization was briefly 
 declared by "The International Soviet of Trade 
 Unions," the name which it first assumed. On August 
 1st, 1920, this body issued a statement from Moscow 
 from which we take the following: 
 
 The substance of our activity and of our program:
 
 174 OUT OF .THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The overthrow of the bourgeoisie by force, the establish- 
 ment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a merciless 
 class struggle on an international scale, a close and in- 
 separable union with the Communist International. 
 
 From the first moment of its inauguration the newest 
 Red Internationale was met with grave internal prob- 
 lems. A split was immediately threatened between the 
 ultra-State Socialism of the Eussians who hoped to ex- 
 tend their absolute authority from the Russian State 
 to other nations, and the ultra-revolutionary labor unions 
 of other countries, all of which tend in the direction 
 of syndicalism or anti-Stateism. Apparently the conflict 
 is insoluble, but the Moscow chiefs of the new Inter- 
 nationale decided to use their accepted Macchiavellian 
 tactics of deception and to ''take in" the syndicalist 
 elements as will be demonstrated by the evidence we 
 shall now reproduce. 
 
 Among the reports unanimously adopted at the Con- 
 gress of the Communist Internationale in July, 1920, was 
 the following: 
 
 As for the revolutionary Syndicalists, as well as the 
 representatives of shop-stewards, we shall not follow the 
 example of the II International, which always harassed 
 and persecuted all workmen who were not in agreement 
 with its ideas. 
 
 We shall work in conjunction with all honest and 
 honestly misguided workmen, and together with them 
 we shall learn and make mistakes, because funda- 
 mentally, in our class aims and ideals we represent with 
 them a single proletarian revolutionary whole. 
 
 Another resolution recommended the most "friendly 
 attitude" and "closer connection" with these organiza-
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 175 
 
 tions. The language here chosen is highly significant, 
 as is also the phraseology of the following sentence from 
 the same resolution: 
 
 As regards the I. "W. W. of America and Australia 
 and the Shop-Steward Committees of England, we have 
 to deal with a genuinely proletarian mass movement 
 which practically adheres to the principles of the Com- 
 munist Internationale. 
 
 In order, however, to show the utter impossibility of 
 any real compromise on the part of Moscow toward any 
 trade unions or any other body having to deal with 
 it no matter how revolutionary they may be we may 
 quote the following passages on the trade unions from 
 "the theses and statutes adopted by the Third or Com- 
 munist Internationale" at their 1920 Congress. We 
 quote from the official publication issued by the office 
 of the Communist Internationale in Moscow: 
 
 All voluntary withdrawal from the industrial move- 
 ment, every artificial attempt to organize special unions, 
 without being compelled thereto by exceptional acts of 
 violence on the part of the trade union bureaucracy, 
 such as expulsion of separate revolutionary local 
 branches of the unions by the opportunist officials, or 
 by their narrow-minded aristocratic policy, which pro- 
 hibits the unskilled workers from entering into the 
 organization, represents a great danger to the Communist 
 movement. It threatens to hand over the most advanced, 
 the most conscious workers, to the opportunist leaders, 
 playing into the hands of the bourgeoisie. 
 
 Placing the object and the essence of labour organiza- 
 tions before them, the Communists ought not to hesitate 
 before a split in such organizations, if a refusal to split
 
 176 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 would mean abandoning revolutionary work in the trade 
 unions, and giving up the attempt to make of them an 
 instrument of revolutionary struggle, the attempt to 
 organize the most exploited part of the proletariat. 
 
 Where a split between the opportunists and the revolu- 
 tionary trade union movement has already taken place 
 before, where, as in America, alongside of the opportunist 
 trade unions there are unions with revolutionary ten- 
 dencies although not Communist ones there the Com- 
 munists are bound to support such revolutionary unions, 
 to persuade them to abandon Syndicalist prejudices and 
 to place themselves on the platform of Communism, 
 which alone is economic struggle. 
 
 It is the duty of the Communists in all the phases 
 of the economic struggle to point out to the workers 
 that the success of the struggle is only possible if the 
 working class conquers the capitalists in open fight, and 
 by means of dictatorship proceeds to the organization 
 of a Socialist order. Consequently, the Communists 
 must strive to create as far as possible complete unity 
 between the trade unions and the Communist Party, and 
 to subordinate the unions to the practical leadership of 
 the Party, as the advanced guard of the workers' revolu- 
 tion. For this purpose the Communists should have 
 Communist fractions in all the trade unions and factory 
 committees and acquire by their means an influence over 
 the labour movement and direct it. 
 
 In a word, whether with or without a split, the aim 
 is to subordinate. We shall now note the practical 
 application of the Communist trade union principles, 
 according to the method of Lenin already quoted, "We 
 must know how to apply, at need, knavery, deceit, illegal 
 methods, hiding truth by silence, in order to penetrate 
 the very heart of the trade unions, to remain there and 
 to accomplish there the Communist task."
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 177 
 
 As soon as the Trade Union Internationale was formed, 
 the leading Bolshevist authority on trade unions, Losov- 
 sky, was delegated to prepare an official pamphlet. This 
 pamphlet was printed in Russian and accepted, but 
 when it was being translated into other languages it 
 occurred to the Moscow authorities that it was indis- 
 pensable as far as possible to keep from the knowledge 
 of the revolutionary labor unionists of other countries 
 the irreconcilable differences between syndicalism and 
 Bolshevist state socialism which had developed in the 
 Moscow conference. Therefore, when it was too late, 
 the two following wireless dispatches were sent abroad: 
 
 To Litvinov for Asten, Chairman, Russian Trade Union 
 Delegation. 
 
 Moscow, Sept. 8. 
 
 The international council of Labor Unions has now 
 been joined by the British Shop Stewards and Workers 
 Committees, Transport Workers ' Federation of Holland, 
 German Syndicalists and Italian Syndicalists. Please 
 shape your policy in accordance with this fact. The 
 aim of the Council is to unite all the Left elements of 
 the Trade Union and Industrial movement. In view 
 of this pp. 56-70 of Losovsky's story of the Council 
 must be re-written before publishing. 
 
 General Secretary of the International Council 
 of Trades Unions Tomsky. 
 
 Wireless to Losovsky, Russian Trade Union Delegation, 
 Christiana, Norway. 
 
 Moscow, Sept. 9. 
 
 Your booklet on the International Council of Trade 
 Unions will be published in Russian with a foreword 
 and additional matters. The polemic nature of the book- 
 let as far as it deals with industrial syndicalists, shop 
 stewards and Italian Confederation representatives such
 
 178 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 as to make it inadvisable that it should be published in 
 a foreign language. 
 
 General Secretary of International Council 
 of Trades Unions Tomsky. 
 
 The passages which it was wished to keep from the 
 non-Russian adherents of the New Red Internationale 
 were those describing the results of the Red Trade Union 
 congress held in Moscow the beginning of July, 1920. 
 Among the most instructive paragraphs are the follow- 
 ing : [We quote from the pamphlet entitled ' ' The Inter- 
 national Council of Trade and Industrial Unions, by A. 
 Losovsky, (S. A. Dridzo) Price 25 cents Published by 
 the Union Publishing Company, New York City.] 
 
 The German syndicalists, tine British and American 
 representatives of the I. W. W. and the Shop Stewards 
 approached the question from quite a different point 
 of view. They questioned the necessity of any form of 
 dictatorship. They regarded the dictatorship not as the 
 dictatorship of the proletariat, but as dictatorship over 
 the proletariat and categorically protested against estab- 
 lishing this principle. 
 
 The representatives of the All-Russian Central Coun- 
 cil of Trade Unions proposed the following point on 
 the dictatorship of the proletariat: "The dictatorship 
 of the bourgeoisie must be opposed by the dictatorship 
 of the proletariat as a transitional, but resolute measure, 
 as the only means by which it is possible to crush the 
 resistance of the exploiters, and secure and consolidate 
 the gains of the proletarian government." 
 
 This formula was adopted by all except the syndical- 
 ists, and the representatives of the I. W. W. and the 
 Shop Stewards. 
 
 It was difficult to unite these conflicting tendencies
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 179 
 
 from the denial of the necessity of a political party 
 to the recognition of the necessity of the inseverable con- 
 nection between the party and the unions, on a single 
 platform. It was still more difficult to reconcile the 
 point of view of the Russian trade unionists on the 
 supremacy of the party over the unions with the various 
 views explained above. The discussion showed one thing, 
 and that was that those elements of the labor movement 
 which denied the political struggle, which denied the 
 necessity of a political party of the proletariat, and the 
 closest bond between the Communist Party and the trade 
 unions could not enter the new international trade union 
 centre, because the whole idea of international organiza- 
 tion of the revolutionary unions lay in gathering all 
 the economic and political organizations of the working 
 class into one body the Third International for defen- 
 sive and offensive operations against the capitalist class. 
 Pestana [of the National Confederation of Labor of 
 Spain] said that he could not imagine such a relation 
 between the party and the unions as existed in Russia, 
 in Spain, for the reason that in Spain the unions are 
 a great force, while the Communist Party is only in 
 its embryonic stage. He opposed the subordination of 
 the unions to the party, but was in favor of the closest 
 contact between the party and the unions on a national 
 and international scale. Neither the representatives of 
 the British Shop Stewards' or the American I. W. W. 
 objected to co-operating with the Communist Party, but 
 the German syndicalists and the representatives of the 
 industrial Labor Unions were categorically opposed to 
 any co-operation. 
 
 Thes'e comrades also raised doubts concerning the 
 Soviet system. They asserted that the Soviet system 
 is not applicable to Western Europe, and that the indus- 
 trial unions and the shop stewards' committees will per- 
 form the function of the Soviets there.
 
 180 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The representatives of the All-Russian Central Coun- 
 cil of Trade Unions were of the opinion that the trade 
 unions should organize sections within the Trade Inter- 
 national. From this it follows that the Third Com- 
 munist International should be the general staff of all 
 the militant revolutionary class organizations of the 
 proletariat. 
 
 All tJie delegates except tke Bulgarians opposed the 
 Russian delegation. The Italians, French and English, 
 approaching the question from various points of view 
 were inclined to the opinion that an independent inter- 
 national organization should be set up which, while being 
 connected by ideas and organization with the Third 
 International, nevertheless should lead an independent 
 existence. The representative of the German syndicalists 
 and of the Australian I. W. W. were against all connec- 
 tion with the Third International and argued that the 
 trade unions under no circumstances will associate with 
 a political organization. It is characteristic that the 
 same point of view was held by the representatives 
 of the German Labor Unions, Otto Ruhle, who repre- 
 sented the German Communist Labor Party, the dis- 
 tinguishing feature of which is that it denies the neces- 
 sity and usefulness of politically organizing the working 
 class. On this question, as on other questions, the syn- 
 dicalists and the I. "W. W. differed. On this occasion 
 it was due to the I. W. W. supporting affiliation to the 
 Third International. 
 
 The question that raised most discussion was that of 
 the tactics of the Communist revolutionary elements 
 within the trade union movement in connection with the 
 old mass unions. The question was: Should the old 
 unions be split or captured? Considerable differences 
 were revealed among the delegates on this point. Recog- 
 nizing their weakness in comparison with the German 
 "free" unions which embrace nearly 8,000,000 members,
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 181 
 
 the German syndicalists and representatives of the Ger- 
 man Labor Unions declared that the present day "free" 
 unions of Germany were hopeless, that it was necessary 
 to destroy them and only by destroying them it will be 
 possible to conquer the bourgeoisie. The representatives 
 of the I. W. W. held the same viewpoint. In their 
 opinion the American Federation of Labor is an in- 
 vincible fortress. The only thing to do was to abandon 
 it and set up a separate organization outside of it. They 
 further asserted that the reactionary character of the 
 American Federation of Labor is bound up with its very 
 construction and to think of fighting the treacherous 
 policy of Gompers inside the unions was an Utopia. . . . 
 Both the German and the American comrades were 
 clearly illogical, for it is ridiculous to think that it is 
 possible to bring about a social revolution in Western 
 Europe without or in spite of the trade unions. To leave 
 the unions and to set up small independent unions is an 
 evidence of weakness. 
 
 It is obvious that a conference of representatives of 
 trade unions of various countries could not adopt a 
 point of despair, and it was resolved to "condemn the 
 tactics of advanced revolutionary elements leaving the 
 existing unions. On the contrary, these, must take all 
 measures to drive the opportunists out of the unions, 
 carry on a methodical propaganda for Communism 
 within the unions, and form Communist and revolu- 
 tionary groups in all the organizations for conducting 
 propaganda in favor of our programme." 
 
 That the conference took up the correct point of view 
 is proved by the Second Congress of the Third Inter- 
 national which sharply opposed the tactics of leaving 
 the unions. The motto put forward by the Communist 
 International, and which is our motto also, is: "Not the 
 destruction, but the conquest of the trade unions."
 
 182 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 It may have been possible on other questions to com- 
 promise in order to secure agreement, but on this car- 
 dinal question of international labor policy no com- 
 promise was possible. 
 
 These conferences ended in the acceptance of a declara- 
 tion which should serve as a basis for gathering all 
 the revolutionary class unions into one organization. 
 This declaration was discussed for a whole month, and 
 is the result of a compromise between various tendencies. 
 
 Losovsky quotes the declaration referred to in full. 
 As he himself declares it is vague and for the most part 
 unimportant. But one resolution should be noted to- 
 gether with the signatures: 
 
 To organize a militant international committee for the 
 reorganization of the trade union movement. This com- 
 mittee will function as the International Council of 
 Trade Unions and will act in agreement with the Execu- 
 tive Committee of fhe Third International on conditions 
 that will be laid down by congresses. 
 Signed : 
 
 A. LOSOVSKY, 
 
 All-Russian Central Council Trade Unions. 
 
 L. D'ARRAGONA, 
 
 General Confederation of Labor, Italy. 
 
 A. PESTANA, 
 
 National Confederation of Labor, Spain. 
 
 N. SHABLIN, 
 
 General Syndicalist Labor Unions, Bulgaria. 
 
 A. ROSMER, 
 
 Revolutionary Syndicalist Minority, C. G. T., France, 
 N. MIKADO, 
 
 Communist Minority Trade Unions, Georgia. 
 N. MILKITCH, 
 
 General Confederation of Labor, Jugo-Slavia (Ser- 
 bia, etc.).
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 183 
 
 Losovsky follows this resolution with the following 
 illuminating comment: 
 
 What is the reason of the vagueness and incomplete- 
 ness of the declaration? It is the fact that several of 
 the organizations represented the General Confedera- 
 tion of Labor of Italy, the unions which Robert Williams 
 and Albert Purcell represent still belong to the Am- 
 sterdam Federation of Trade Unions, and that the 
 leaders of even the revolutionary class unions of Western 
 Europe lag behind the revolutionary masses. 
 
 It is indeed interesting that Purcell and Williams 
 should be permitted by the organized labor of Great 
 Britain to participate in an organization pledged to a 
 war of extermination against the Amsterdam Interna- 
 tional. The same remark applies to d'Arragona who 
 was later admitted to the Autumn Conference of the 
 Amsterdam Federation of Trade Unions. 
 
 Losovsky proceeds to claim that the new organization 
 is supported by nine million members. We have already 
 shown the absurdity of this claim with regard to seven 
 million of these, representing Russia and Italy. It may 
 be doubted if the Spanish Confederation wholly accepts 
 Moscow's dictatorship. The claim to "the revolutionary 
 syndicalist minority of France," seven hundred thou- 
 sand members, is absurd. The French labor movement 
 has not yet been successfully disrupted by Moscow and 
 the minority still accepts the discipline of the C. G. T., 
 under Jouhaux, Dumoulin, Merrheim, Bartuel, Bidegary 
 and other militant anti-Bolshevists. 
 
 Since its formation and the publication of these official 
 pamphlets, the Red Labor Union Internationale has
 
 184 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 proceeded with its work of attempted destruction of 
 organized labor in all countries. In. a recent publication 
 entitled "Two Months' Activity of the International 
 Council of Trade and Industrial Unions," (the official 
 title now assumed by the new Internationale) we read: 
 
 ' ' The organization of the propaganda of the Council ' ' 
 thus states the pamphlet "has been started and mani- 
 festos have already been issued to the organized workers 
 of Great Britain, America, Germany, India and France. 
 . . . The Council is making arrangements for the estab- 
 lishment in each of the countries of at least one central 
 propaganda committee with its members drawn from 
 the revolutionary unions, where possible, the Communist 
 Party. They will not hesitate to form more than one 
 National committee where these are necessary. These 
 committees are to undertake extensive propaganda 
 throughout the unions by means of the publication of 
 manifestos, the use of labor papers, by conferences of 
 the unions, by controversy in the press, by the organiza- 
 tion of speakers, distribution of our literature and gen- 
 eral agitation throughout the labor movement." 
 
 In Great Britain the British Bureau of the Inter- 
 national Council of Trades and Industrial Unions has 
 been formed under the leadership of notorious pro-Bol- 
 shevist British unionists, whose names are known if not 
 yet officially published. Two resolutions are being pro- 
 posed by this "Council" in trade union locals in Great 
 Britain and America and other countries, as follows: 
 
 1. To withdraw from the Amsterdam Federation of 
 
 Trade Unions. 
 
 2. To join the new Internationale and send delegates 
 
 to a world conference at Moscow pledged to sup-
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 185 
 
 port ... a revolutionary policy aiming at the 
 world-wide dictatorship of the proletariat. 
 
 The published program of the Communist Party in 
 America indicates that they have studied carefully the 
 Moscow policy of boring from within and battering from 
 without. Here is its definition of the duty of Com- 
 munist members of trade unions: 
 
 A Communist who belongs to the A. F. of L. should 
 seize every opportunity to voice his hostility to this 
 organization, not to reform it but to destroy it. The 
 I. W. W. must be upheld as against the A. F. of L. At 
 the same time the work of Communist education must be 
 carried on within the I. W. W. 
 
 It will be noted that the same effort to capture is to 
 be applied against the I. W. "W. as against the non- 
 Communist unions of Europe. 
 
 Naturally the elements of the European labor move- 
 ment adhering to the Amsterdam Federation of Trades 
 Unions do not accept the criticisms of the new Inter- 
 nationale although as yet the Amsterdam body has 
 made very feeble efforts to defend itself and its most 
 important international action during 1920 was the 
 violently pro-Soviet resolution for a general strike above 
 referred to. At the Congress in London in November, 
 the Federation passed the following resolution in reply 
 to the Moscow Trade Union manifesto: 
 
 The Congress observes that the signatories of this 
 manifesto set down their declaration of war by writing 
 that the International of Moscow will destroy the ''Yel- 
 low" Amsterdam International.
 
 186 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The Congress considers, judging from the facts of the 
 situation, that these attacks do not emanate from the 
 Bussian proletariat and that the latter could not be 
 regarded as in any degree responsible for them. Further, 
 the Congress considers that these caluminous criticisms 
 and this declaration of war prove either a total ignorance 
 of the composition and actions of the International Fed- 
 eration of Trade Unions or else an evident bad faith 
 arising out of the unwholesome desire to destroy the 
 workers' organizations in every country. (From Justice, 
 December 2, 1920.) 
 
 Throughout Europe the labor elements supporting the 
 International Trades Union Federation and those sup- 
 porting the Second or Socialist Internationale are largely 
 identical. Perhaps because it had been longer under 
 attack, the Second Internationale at its meeting in Brus- 
 sels, a few weeks before the International Trade Union 
 Congress of London, passed a far more resolute anti- 
 Bolshevist resolution signed : 
 
 ARTHUR HENDERSON, M.P. (Great Britain). 
 
 EMILE VANDERVELDE (Belgium). 
 
 J. RAMSAY MACDONALD (Great Britain). 
 
 P. J. TROELSTRA (Holland). 
 
 OTTO WELS (Germany). 
 
 ARTHUR ENQBERG (Sweden). 
 
 CAMILLE HUYSMANS (Belgium), Secretary. 
 
 From this resolution we may quote the following: 
 
 They [the Bolshevists] trod the desires of the Rus- 
 sian people in the dust, and in place of democracy they 
 established an armed dictatorship, not of the proletariat, 
 but of a committee. Now they are attempting to impose 
 their will and their decrees upon the Socialist and Labour
 
 THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 187 
 
 Parties of the whole world. They belong to the old 
 world of Tsardom, not to the new world of Socialism. 
 
 They have insulted twenty -seven millions of organized 
 trade union workers by calling them "scabs" and have 
 declared their intention to disrupt the trade unions. . . . 
 
 They may have ended wage-slavery; they have estab- 
 lished State-slavery and misery. They have robbed the 
 workers of freedom of movement and of combination 
 and are preventing the creation of economic democracy. 
 
 This resolution undoubtedly indicates the real state 
 of mind of the trades unions of Europe towards the 
 Russian Soviets. However, neither of these resolutions 
 has led to any effective action of any kind against either 
 the international machinations or the subsidized propa- 
 ganda of Bolshevism. [For a later declaration of the 
 Amsterdam Federation see the following chapter.]
 
 XII 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 
 
 LENIN, in the summer of 1920, abandoned his policy 
 of excluding all persons from Russia who were not Bol- 
 shevists. Socialist and Labor delegations were admitted 
 from England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and 
 Sweden which contained non-Bolshevist members. Few 
 if any of their members belonged to the moderate wing 
 of the European labor movement. The majority were 
 pro-Bolshevists and the others represented the revolu- 
 tionary or orthodox "center" of the movement. On 
 returning to their various countries the majority of these 
 witnesses condemned Bolshevism, root and branch. 
 
 Serrati, Dugoni, Vacirca and d'Arragona, of the Ital- 
 ian Socialist and labor union delegation, after their 
 visit, declared that while the capitalist regime had been 
 destroyed "it has not been replaced by anything that 
 meets even the most elementary needs of a civilized peo- 
 ple." Crispien, the revolutionary leader of Germany's 
 Independent Socialists, said that under the Third Inter- 
 nationale ' ' a tyranny almost as bad as that of capitalism 
 would prevail." Mrs. Snowden of the British Mission 
 declared not only that the Soviets were anti-socialist and 
 anti-democratic and anti-Christian, but that everybody 
 she had met in Russia outside the Communist party 
 "goes in terror of his liberty or his life." Serrati, 
 editor of Avanti and revolutionary leader of the Italian 
 
 188
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 189 
 
 Socialists, stated that the Russian people are passive 
 and indifferent and quoted Lenin to the effect that fifty 
 years would be necessary to complete the work of the 
 revolution. The eminent German Socialist, Dittmann, 
 one of the radical members of the German delegation, 
 reported that Russia was entirely under the control of 
 the Bolshevist Party with 604,000 members, and that 
 in one month last summer 893 people were shot by order 
 of the special revolutionary tribunals and a much larger 
 number unreported were executed "by administrative 
 orders." This has happened since the Bolshevists were 
 accredited all over the world in "intellectual" and 
 "liberal" organs with having abolished terrorism. Tom 
 Shaw, a member of the British delegation, pointed out 
 that the working people of Russia were in a condition 
 of actual slavery. 
 
 Both Professor Ballod of the German delegation and 
 the Italians, in their official report, concluded that the 
 Bolshevists are absolutely incompetent economically. 
 Professor Ballod states that the Soviet leaders have 
 proven themselves "wholly incapable of effecting an 
 economic restoration in Russia" and that "bureaucracy 
 is as bad as it was under the Czar and is on the as- 
 cendent. ' ' 
 
 The Italians, including the revolutionary Serrati, de- 
 clared that the Soviet as an experiment had proved itself 
 a failure, though the British report held that, as an 
 experiment, it would prove valuable to other countries 
 (carried out it will be noted, at the expense of the 
 Russian and not of the British people). The Italians 
 and Germans regarded the existing resistance to the 
 Soviet oppressors as justifiable and inevitable. The
 
 190 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 British report referred to this resistance under the 
 Soviet term "counter-revolution" and concluded that 
 the Soviet Government was supported by the Russian 
 people. The Italians, as we have said, held that the pop- 
 ulation was passive and indifferent, while the above- 
 named Germans, admirers of the Soviet and the Third 
 Internationale, discovered after investigation in Russia, 
 that the Soviet regime was a tyranny without support 
 outside of the Bolshevist Party. 
 
 The second disillusionment of European labor came 
 with the ultimatum of the Third Internationale (the 
 famous 21 points) by which Lenin declared to his wor- 
 shippers that they either had to accept the absolute 
 dictatorship of Moscow or be excommunicated, and that 
 they had to destroy the International Federation of 
 Trades Unions as being a scab organization. 
 
 Finally, most frightful disillusionment, the Polish 
 people were not conquered by the Soviets, in spite of all 
 the revolutionary measures taken by radical labor 
 throughout Europe to help the Bolshevist would-be con- 
 querors. 
 
 All these events took a little time to have their full 
 effect; it was not until the labor union and Socialist 
 Party congresses of the fall and winter that European 
 labor began to find itself but it has answered Lenin 
 at last ! After a visit to the Caucasus J. R. MacDonald 
 demanded that Great Britain protect the Social-Demo- 
 cratic Labor Government of Georgia and bring about 
 an alliance of that country with Armenia and the Tartar 
 Republic. As Soviet Russia, Lenin's official organ in 
 America, rightly remarks, this alliance would be for 
 defense against the Soviets as well as against the Turks.
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 191 
 
 Also Kautsky of Germany and De Brouckere of Bel- 
 gium, after visiting Armenia, recommended military in- 
 tervention and Huysmans, Secretary of the Second 
 Internationale sent the appeal to that effect to the Social- 
 ist parties affiliated with that Internationale (including 
 the British Labor Party). As between Turkish and 
 Bolshevist armies and those of Great Britain and France, 
 not only Georgia and Armenia, but also MacDonald, 
 Kautsky and Huysmans were for the armies of the capi- 
 talist governments a far cry from the summer's policy 
 of assisting in the forcible Sovietizing of Poland ! 
 
 The French labor unionists, especially, are lucid, con- 
 sistent and outspoken. The Executive of the C. G. T., 
 the French Federation of Labor, issued an appeal to 
 French workmen to remain faithful to the union labor 
 movement as against the Communist element that re- 
 cently split the Socialist Party at Tours, and on Febru- 
 ary 15th (1921) this Executive was re-elected, though by 
 a narrow margin Moscow having spent millions of dol- 
 lars in an attempt to purchase the Congress. In a long 
 manifesto the Federation Executive charged the Com- 
 munists with the intention of "destroying international 
 syndicalism that comprises 27,000,000 workers," and 
 asked labor to support a program of social improvement, 
 rather than "personal ambitions and greeds." 
 
 The Federation Council squarely accepted Lenin's 
 declaration of a war to the finish and authorized Jouhaux 
 by a vote of 103 to 3, with twenty-two abstentions, to 
 take any necessary measures (including expulsion) 
 against any members who obeyed the orders of the 
 Third Internationale and organized nuclei of Commun- 
 ists for the purpose of throwing out all non-Bolshevist
 
 192 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 leaders. This was a logical step in pursuance of the 
 Orleans Congress of the C. G. T. Congress in September, 
 1920, which issued a declaration of independence as 
 against all outside political control. Merrheim, Secre- 
 tary of France's leading union, the Metal Workers, at 
 this congress denounced the Soviet Government and 
 described Lenin as "a sanguinary megalomaniac and a 
 pitiless tyrant, the greatest menace to the Russian revolu- 
 tion. ' ' When the Bolshevists yelled in protest Merrheim 
 replied that these were the very words used only a few 
 years before by the Franco-Russian, Rappoport, now 
 one of the French Bolshevist leaders. Bartuel, Secretary 
 of the next largest union, the Miners, who has also been 
 sustained in a recent congress of his union, describes 
 Bolshevism as a militaristic and reactionary movement 
 worse than capitalism. 
 
 At the French Socialist Congress at Tours in Decem- 
 ber, 1920, at which the revolutionary majority accepted 
 Lenin as Czar and changed the name of the organization 
 to Communist Party, the minority (itself Marxian and 
 revolutionary) showed that the French General Strike 
 of May 1st, 1920, engineered and subsidized by the Rus- 
 sian Bolshevists, had almost destroyed the organized 
 labor of France. 
 
 M. Faure presented to the delegates figures showing 
 material decreases of the membership in the union syn- 
 dicates of the Seine and of the French Confederation 
 of Labor. The Confederation membership has decreased 
 from 1,500,000 to 600,000, he declared, while that of 
 the Seine syndicates has decreased from 292,000 to 
 140,000. He asserted this decrease was due to the ex- 
 tremist element, and that the party would suffer further 
 losses if the revolutionary spirit of Moscow prevailed.
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 193 
 
 The most recent delegation to Moscow was that of the 
 Spanish Socialists. Upon his return to Spain, Rois, one 
 of the two delegates, a member of the last Spanish Parlia- 
 ment, reported as follows: 
 
 Any one who analyzes the curious state of mind in 
 which the Russian leaders find themselves cannot fail 
 to note that it is due to the contempt in which the 
 notions of liberty and democracy are held. We pointed 
 out to Comrade Kobetsky that the Spanish party was 
 accustomed to refer policies to a referendum. "That," 
 he said, "is playing democracy." 
 
 "How and when," we asked Lenin in our interview 
 with him, ' ' can we get out of this period of the dictator- 
 ship of the proletariat which you call a period of tran- 
 sition and arrive at a regime of freedom for labor 
 unions, press, and individuals?" 
 
 "We ourselves," Lenin replied, "have never talked 
 of liberty. All we have said is 'dictatorship of the 
 proletariat.' That dictatorship we are exercising here 
 from the seat of power in behalf of the proletariat. In 
 Russia the working class, properly so-called, is in a 
 minority. That minority is imposing its will and will 
 continue to do so as long as other elements in society 
 resist the economic conditions that Communism lays 
 down. The peasants and the country people do not 
 think readily in our terms. They have the mentality of 
 shopkeepers, petty bourgeois. That is why Denikin, Kol- 
 chak, and Wrangel have found some support among 
 them. . . . 
 
 "However, to come back to your question: The period 
 of transition will be a long one with us I should say 
 from forty to fifty years. Other countries, such as Eng- 
 land and Germany, where industry is better organized 
 than here, will recover from the proletarian dictatorship 
 much sooner, though the development of revolution in 
 those countries is taking longer than we had hoped."
 
 194 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Perhaps the most complete and authoritative statement 
 of the attitude of European labor towards the Soviets 
 and their Communist Internationale is to be found in 
 the open letter of the International Federation of Trades 
 Unions dated March 23, 1921. This letter is signed by 
 the Executive Committee of the International Federa- 
 tion of Trades Unions as follows: Jouhaux (France), 
 Martens (Belgium), Fimmen and Oudegeest (Holland). 
 Only the name of the President of the organization, J. 
 H. Thomas, of Great Britain, is lacking. 
 
 This letter was in reply to a very insulting epistle 
 sent by Zinoviev, as President of the Communist Inter- 
 nationale, in which all the leaders of the International 
 Federation of Trades Unions were declared to be "scabs" 
 and traitors to the working class. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the International Feder- 
 ation of Trades Unions declares in its reply that it is 
 ready to support the Russian people and the Russian 
 revolution to the full extent of its powers, but it demands 
 in return from the representatives of the Russian people 
 that ' ' they shall pursue a similar line of conduct towards 
 the Internationale of Labor Unions." We see from this 
 statement that the International Trades Union Bureau 
 recognizes the Bolshevist Government as representing 
 the Russian people in spite of the absolutely contra- 
 dictory evidence it furnishes later in the same letter. 
 Of the Soviet regime it demands only a friendly attitude 
 to the Trades Union Internationale ; in exchange for this, 
 it is ready to give Bolshevism an absolutely free hand 
 in Russia to continue the despotic rule over labor de- 
 scribed in the remainder of the letter! However, since 
 this introductory statement shows that the International
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 195 
 
 Federation of Trades Unions wishes to be as friendly 
 to the Russian Bolshevists as the latter will allow, the 
 indictment that follows has all the more weight. The 
 International Bureau Executive continues: 
 
 Up to the present we have received nothing from those 
 who claim the right to speak in the name of the Russian 
 people but curses, libels and lies, which have been spread 
 without the shadow of proof. 
 
 And is it possible for us to fail to state that we find 
 it difficult to believe in your good will towards the pro- 
 letariat ? Is it not a principle of your party to subordi- 
 nate the freedom of labor unions to political considera- 
 tions 1 You suggest that we should hold conferences to- 
 gether, but up to the present you have not shown that 
 you have learned how to consort with decent people. 
 The proof of this is found in your lies and in the fact 
 that you cannot write a letter without filling it with 
 insults and you haven't even enough cleverness to 
 introduce variety in your attacks. Your dictionary of 
 curse words, gentlemen, is as monotonous as the starva- 
 tion and the news of massacres in your country. 
 
 For three years you have been destroying the freedom 
 of the labor movement in Russia with fire and sword. 
 And you have done this so thoroughly and radically that 
 the "White Terror" of the bourgeois Government of 
 Hungary is but a weak reflection of your "Red Terror." 
 
 The Executive of the Trade Union Internationale then 
 turns its attention to the ignorance displayed by the Bol- 
 shevists in all their discussions of the labor situation of 
 other countries and especially of the labor unions. It 
 points out that the International Trades Union Federa- 
 tion has twenty-four million members and estimates on 
 the basis of Zinoviev's own statement that the new Red 
 Labor Union Internationale has less than a million mem-
 
 196 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 bers outside of Russia. The International Executive 
 then continues: 
 
 That Zinovieff, who speaks in the name of a so-called 
 Labor Union Internationale, is ignorant of all this only 
 shows that he has no conception whatever of the Euro- 
 pean labor union movement. This does not surprise us. 
 We are only too well aware that this gentleman knows 
 the labor union movement only from books and pam- 
 phlets and was never a working man. Was it not Lenin 
 who, shortly before the October (1917) coup d' etat, 
 wrote as follows of this Mr. Zinovieff: "I knew he was 
 an ignoramus ; but I didn't know he was also a coward." 
 
 And this man accuses us of not being working men! 
 The confusion which runs among the ideas of Mr. Zino- 
 vieff is very comprehensible to us. He is simply unable 
 to conceive of a labor union movement which is fully 
 independent of the political movement. Did he not write 
 in the ''Communist Internationale" on April 9th "You 
 (the Communist Party) bind the political struggle and 
 the economic struggle together as a single whole and 
 supervise the political struggle of the proletariat just 
 as you conduct its economic struggle. ' ' 
 
 We declare frankly that the situation in which the 
 labor organizations of your country find themselves, 
 owing to your conduct, doesn't entitle you to give ns 
 lectures. 
 
 Lectures from you ! You do not appear to know, Mr. 
 Zinovieff, that your standpoint has long ago become 
 obsolete and belongs to the past. For more than thirty 
 years the labor unions of Central and Western Europe 
 have freed themselves from the guardianship of all poli- 
 ticians and political parties and experience has taught 
 them they have acted wisely. All your arrogance doesn 't 
 do away with the fact that you are setting about to begin 
 the development of the labor union movement all over 
 again. Try, gentlemen, to be a little less behind the 
 times and endeavor to gain some knowledge of the facts.
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 197 
 
 It is of little consequence whether these facts are 
 known to you or not, or whether, according to the teach- 
 ings of Lenin, you regard all poisons and tricks and 
 cloakings of the truth as permissible in order to gain 
 control of the labor unions. (This refers to the Macchia- 
 vellian expression of Lenin cited in previous chapters.) 
 
 In our letter of the 15th of December we wrote: "If 
 you or other representatives of your labor union move- 
 ment chance to desire to gain more information about 
 our movement during which you would perhaps con- 
 vince yourselves that you have hitherto done nothing but 
 to damage your own movement and to harm the prole- 
 tariat then we are ready at any time to give you the 
 desired information. 
 
 If we haven't had the opportunity of enjoying the 
 blessings of your regime personally, at least we know 
 your system and your principles. We know your 
 theories, as they are printed on paper, but we also know 
 them as applied in practice, which is well illustrated by 
 your over-crowded prisons. We know the dependence 
 of the Soviets upon the Communist Party which has 
 created a new autocracy. We know the happy condition 
 the Russian people finds itself in and the welfare your 
 rule has brought on paper. And we hear with satis- 
 faction that you regard Middle and Western Europe as 
 not yet being ripe for your beneficent plans. 
 
 Look once more at our letter of December 15th which 
 in your haste to answer quickly you read too super- 
 ficially. For there we declared that we are very ready 
 to teach you, however painful it is to us that men 
 equipped with such complete power as you have can 
 scarcely open their mouths or take a pen in hand with- 
 out giving new proof that they are without the slightest 
 knowledge of those things which men in their position 
 ought to know. 
 
 We declare to you that we are still ready to undertake 
 this work of instruction.
 
 198 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 The Soviet Government itself has been forced to take 
 notice of the rising tide of hostility in the ranks of 
 European labor. The British Labor Party protested 
 against the severe punishment meted out to Russian 
 trade unionists who had been bold enough to give them 
 truthful information during their visit to Russia. This 
 protest had no effect upon the barbarian ears of the 
 Soviets. They refused to moderate their policy in the 
 slightest degree in response to such ineffective verbal 
 pressure but at the same time felt obliged to issue one 
 of their usual statements attempting to cover their 
 actions by a few utterly meaningless phrases. The state- 
 ment, signed by Krassin, was in part as follows : 
 
 The Soviet Government is responsible to the working 
 masses of Russia and to the world proletariat for the 
 maintenance of the success of the Russian Socialist 
 Revolution. 
 
 The Soviet Government is extremely desirous to main- 
 tain the best relations with the British Labor Party, 
 and with other proletarian or semi-proletarian organiza- 
 tions. The Soviet Government is extremely grateful to 
 them for the support they have given to the cause of 
 the Russian Revolution. [The British Labor Party has 
 not even threatened to withdraw or curtail this sup- 
 port! ed.] 
 
 The Soviet Government . . . considers, as is the case 
 at present, that the sole organ having any right to 
 impose conditions upon the Soviets and to make any 
 complaints to them is the Russian working masses and 
 the revolutionary organizations of the proletarian world. 
 
 That is, the Russian Communists, claiming to repre- 
 sent the revolutionary proletariat of the world, assert 
 their right of life and death over anybody who happens 
 to fall into their power, no matter how large the pro-
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 199 
 
 letarian majority which condemns their action ! It may 
 be doubted if a more thinly veiled defense of sheer des- 
 potism was ever offered to the world. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the Russian people are allowed 
 no voice whatever within that country, it must not be 
 supposed that they have been successfully stifled. In- 
 numerable representative individuals from all classes, 
 including the trade unions, men and women whose 
 integrity and credentials cannot be questioned, have 
 escaped, to give voice to the opinions of the Rus- 
 sian people. Moreover, the largest labor organiza- 
 tions of Russia, that is the rank and file of the 
 trade unions, without reference to the new leaders ap- 
 pointed by the Soviets or the new imaginary organiza- 
 tions created by them, have been in continued contact 
 with European labor. The same is true of the Socialist 
 Revolutionary Party, numerically the most important 
 political organization in Russia. There is, moreover, 
 no misunderstanding whatever of the Russian situation 
 in neighboring countries, such as Germany and Scan- 
 dinavia, where the contact with Russia has been close 
 and continuous and pro-Bolshevist "intellectuals" can 
 deceive nobody. But besides this testimony the labor 
 delegations visiting Soviet Russia have secured reports 
 from the trades unions and from the socialist parties 
 as organizations. Some of these are published in the 
 report of the British Labor Delegation. From the most 
 important, the address to British labor by the Executive 
 Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, signed 
 by Chernoff, Gotz, and other leaders known to the entire 
 labor and socialist movement of Europe, we quote the 
 following characterization of the Bolshevist regime:
 
 200 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 "We quite understand that the British proletariat, 
 deafened by the clamour of the recent world slaughter, 
 not yet recovered from the wave of national chauvinism, 
 would like to see in Russia, in spite of the libels of petty 
 bourgeois penny-a-liners, the living example of how a 
 people, after having shaken off its feet the dust of the 
 old world, has risen on the ruins of the war conflagration 
 to a new work of creation, free and untrammelled by any 
 chains or bonds. We quite agree that some illusions 
 must be left, and that the proletariat of Europe has 
 created ''the Red Legend" of a great country where 
 Socialism, unrealisable to Philistine bourgeoisie, has not 
 only been tried, but has now existed for nearly three 
 years, in spite of the civil war, the blockade, and an 
 artificial isolation from the rest of the cultured world, 
 amid the gibes of inimically-inclined people hedging it 
 round. We are well aware that this Red Legend, this 
 Red Myth may exert an elevating influence on the 
 ardour of the proletarian vanguard, causing its heart 
 to beat faster, proudly raising its head, and straining 
 to tenseness its revolutionary muscle. We are loath to 
 confess that this Red Legend must react with a force 
 directly proportionate to the square of its distance, and 
 that the number of models of admirable energy worthy 
 of imitation is far below the number of examples show- 
 ing us how a Social Revolution should not be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 We would ask you to try and distinguish among the 
 many strange and Asiatically-savage facts of Bolshevik- 
 Communist dictatorship something more than the mere 
 mad pranks of a Caliban. -Do not forget that revolution- 
 ary passion carried to fanatical excess, added to the im- 
 patience characteristic of an active temperament, often 
 prove fatal. You must always bear in mind that Russia 
 has lived for ages under a regime of all-around oppres- 
 sion on the part of the Government; that the training 
 of the people in ideas of democracy demanded a period 
 of time too long for the patience of a great number
 
 EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 201 
 
 of the people themselves. The temptation proved too 
 strong to effect a leap right over the dead level of 
 unpreparedness with the help of enlightened despotism 
 and the rod of Peter the Great shaped according to a 
 new Communist fashion. Taking all this into considera- 
 tion, it will, perhaps, be clear to you why in the tumul- 
 tuous chaos of the revolutionary tempest, one part of 
 the Russian Socialists so quickly and easily cast off the 
 outward gilding of scientific Socialism, showing under- 
 neath the Asiatic nature of enlightened despotism with 
 a Communist lining. 
 
 In spite of abundant evidence of this character con- 
 tained in its report, the British Labor Delegation, being 
 divided, took no decisive stand and made statements 
 flatly contradicted not only by other delegations, 
 but by some of their own delegates, as already noted. 
 This led to further protest by the Socialist-Revolution- 
 ists represented in Paris by another leader known in all 
 countries, 0. S. Minor a man, like the others, who has 
 spent most of his life in prison or exile because of his 
 socialistic and revolutionary opinions. Referring es- 
 pecially to the failure of the British Labor Party to do 
 anything on behalf of the oppressed population of Rus- 
 sia, in particular the labor unionists and agriculturists, 
 Minor said: 
 
 Still less can we understand how so many of the 
 Socialists can, with a clear conscience, justify the 
 methods of Bolshevism for Russia, at the same time 
 rejecting them for their own countries. Such a view 
 shows either a conscious or unconscious deep contempt 
 for the Russian people, an insulting attitude toward 
 them as towards a nation of slaves for whom the Com- 
 munism of the Whip is the most appropriate, natural 
 and national brand of Socialism.
 
 202 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 Such an attitude towards the working people of Rus- 
 sia, proved to be wrong by innumerable uprisings of 
 workers and peasants, we, Russian Socialists, never ex- 
 pected to meet with among our European comrades, and, 
 we declare, that we cannot leave such a perversion of 
 mutual relations within the international Socialist family 
 without our most emphatic protest.
 
 XIII 
 THE CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 
 
 BOLSHEVIST diplomats have repeatedly acknowledged 
 that one of the purposes of their negotiations for gov- 
 ernmental trade agreements is to obtain de facto recog- 
 nition of the Soviet Government with all the prestige 
 that this implies. Krassin, the chief negotiator with 
 Great Britain, has acknowledged that there can be very 
 little trade for some time and Mr. Hughes has demon- 
 strated that trade will depend upon the extension of 
 credit by somebody or other to the Soviet Government. 
 
 The whole negotiations are described by Lenin in a 
 speech before the railwaymen, reported by the Moscow 
 wireless on April 3rd, 1921, as "our game with the 
 bourgeoisie. ' ' 
 
 But an additional purpose of these trade negotiations 
 is Bolshevist propaganda throughout the world and as 
 part of this propaganda the word has been passed along 
 by the Bolshevists for foreign consumption that by 
 the very act of making trade agreements with capitalists, 
 Communism in Russia was being abandoned. 
 
 There is no foundation for this claim. All the revolu- 
 tionary wars, insurrections, general strikes and agita- 
 tions openly subsidized by the Bolshevists throughout 
 the world for the past three years have been going on 
 simultaneously with the agitation for trade agreements 
 and the effort to interest capitalists through concessions, 
 
 203
 
 204 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 that is, through alienating the patrimony of the Russian 
 people without their consent. 
 
 There can be no question that the Soviet British trade 
 agreement was a tremendous victory for Soviet prestige 
 both in Russia and in every country of the world. There 
 is ample ground for the following statement from Soviet 
 Russia published on April 16, 1921 : 
 
 The full extent of the victory won by the workers of 
 Russia over the rulers of England is revealed in the text 
 of the Anglo-Russian trade agreement published in this 
 number of Soviet Russia. In the issue of January 22, 
 1921, there were published in Soviet Russia two prelim- 
 inary draft agreements, one submitted by the British 
 government on November 29, and the other submitted 
 by the Soviet government on December 13, 1920. A 
 comparison of the two papers Afforded a view of the 
 divergent and conflicting claims and purposes of the 
 Russian and British Governments respectively. The 
 final agreement is the outcome of the contest in which 
 Mr. Krassin, representing the power and purpose of the 
 Russian workers, met Sir Robert Home, representing 
 the power and purpose of the British imperialists. It 
 was a test of strength, a significant skirmish, between 
 Communism and Capitalism. We purpose here to ex- 
 amine the final document paragraph by paragraph, to 
 see by comparison with the previous drafts which of the 
 two powers prevailed in the adjustment of their oppos- 
 ing contentions. The examination will show that the 
 Workers' Republic won an" overwhelming victory over 
 the Capitalist Empire. Point by point, clause by clause, 
 the claims and principles advanced by the Soviet Gov- 
 ernment broke down the objections and evasions of the 
 British Government. 
 
 The final document consists of a preamble and four- 
 teen articles, and is accompanied by a separate declara- 
 tion of claims, signed on the same day.
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 205 
 
 The very fact that the British Government claimed 
 until the last moment that there was to be no political 
 recognition of the Soviet Government shows how this 
 aspect of the agreement was a defeat for Great Britain 
 and a victory for the Soviets a victory undoubtedly 
 due, as Krassin claims, to the Bolshevist propaganda. 
 Yet it was only a few weeks after the agreement had 
 been signed that the British courts declared that it 
 amounted to a de facto recognition, in spite of the fact 
 that it is distinctly stated in that document that it was 
 only preliminary to such recognition. A tremendous 
 comment on this trade agreement is the fact that the 
 Bolshevists apparently continued to expend the same vast 
 sums of money in Great Britain for the overthrow of 
 the British Government after that agreement as before. 
 Apparently the Bolshevists put special hopes upon the 
 coal strike (April and May, 1921). Although this was 
 a purely economic struggle in the fundamental questions 
 raised, a very considerable minority in the organization 
 openly attempted to take advantage of the crisis for 
 revolutionary purposes. In view of this fact the official 
 statement made in the House of Commons by Edward 
 Shortt, Secretary for Home Affairs, on May 12, is of the 
 utmost significance : 
 
 The British Government is considering the possibility 
 of introducing legislation to prohibit the receipt of 
 foreign money in the United Kingdom intended to pro- 
 mote a revolutionary movement or to sustain a revolu- 
 tionary propaganda. 
 
 If such agitation was indeed being carried on by the 
 Bolshevists it was done with the encouragement of the 
 British Government itself.
 
 206 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 From the very first Lenin has advocated this policy, 
 with the expressed belief that Bolshevist-aided revolu- 
 tions would soon overthrow all existing governments and 
 release him from his obligations. 
 
 As early as February, 1919, Tchitcherin, the Soviet 
 Commissary for Foreign Affairs, sent to the governments 
 of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United 
 States a note in which he said: 
 
 Seeing the great interest which has always been shown 
 by foreign capital for the exploitation of Russia 's natural 
 riches, the Russian Soviet Government is disposed to 
 grant concessions upon mines, forests, and so on, to 
 citizens of the Entente Powers, under conditions which 
 must be carefully determined so that the economic and 
 social order of Soviet Russia should not suffer from the 
 internal rule of these concessions. 
 
 At the meeting of the Russian Communist Party on 
 March 15th, 1921, Kameneff used an identical argument 
 (Moscow Wireless, March 18, 1921) : 
 
 . . . Can we without the assistance of foreign capital 
 rapidly restore our economic life? No, we cannot. We 
 must have the assistance of foreign experts. By heroic 
 concentration of strength we might have restored our 
 economic life independently" but for this we would re- 
 quire a very long time. 
 
 Yes, the foreign capitalists will not assist us for noth- 
 ing! We will have to pay them a liberal tribute. . . . 
 World capital having received this tribute from us will 
 increase the productive power cf Russia and will thus 
 play the role predicted for it by Marx: Capital will dig 
 for itself its historic grave.
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 207 
 
 In the Pravda (November 30th, 1920), Lenin defended 
 the policy of concessions with these expressions: 
 
 We have defeated the world bourgeoisie up to the 
 present owing to the fact that they can not unite. Both 
 the Brest-Litovsk and Versailles treaties have tended to 
 keep them apart. A bitter hatred is now growing up 
 between America and Japan. We are utilizing this, 
 and are offering Kamchatka on a long lease, instead 
 of giving it away without payment, considering that 
 Japan has taken away already by military force a large 
 territory in the Far East. . . . 
 
 I must repeat, concessions are a continuation of war 
 on an economic basis but instead of destroying they 
 reconstruct our productivity. They surely will try to 
 deceive us, to evade our laws, but for such purposes 
 there exist our respective institutions, all Russian Extra- 
 ordinary Commission, Moscow Extraordinary Commis- 
 sion, Provincial Extraordinary Commission, etc., and we 
 are sure that we shall be victorious. 
 
 It must be remembered that these Extraordinary Com- 
 missions are the official Soviet bodies for enforcing the 
 "red terror." 
 
 In his closing speech at the March (1921) Congress 
 of the Russian Communist Party Lenin exposed all the 
 main elements of Bolshevist policy. His internal policy, 
 as there developed, has been discussed at the end of 
 Chapter VII. It is closely linked with the external 
 policy. Once more after the adoption of his "new" 
 proposals by the Congress as in his opening speech, he 
 based everything on the coming world revolution: "But 
 when we look on our party as the hearth of world revo- 
 lution, and observe the campaign now being conducted
 
 208 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 against us by the governments of the world there is no 
 room for doubt." That is, the growing certainty of 
 world revolution, removes all doubt of Bolshevist suc- 
 cess in impending negotiations with foreign governments 
 for the official recognition of the Soviet title to Russia 
 and all the resources and human chattels it contains! 
 The Soviet leader does not deny the weakness of the 
 Soviets. But let it be remembered that he ceaselessly 
 drills his followers to the thought that all other nations 
 are weaker still! As he says in his speech, "All this in- 
 formation given out by the international bourgeoisie . . . 
 reveals once more how we are surrounded by enemies, 
 and how feeble these enemies have grown within the past 
 year!" 
 
 Bearing this blind and fanatical optimism in mind 
 we can better grasp other parts of the speech in which 
 Lenin shows he is counting absolutely on getting from 
 America the credit and supplies to revive Russian Bol- 
 shevism by means of a trade agreement on the British 
 model! As quoted by Soviet Russia (May 14, 1921) 
 Lenin said: 
 
 The world press syndicate freedom of the press con- 
 sists there in the fact that 99 per cent of the press is 
 owned by financial magnates manipulating hundreds of 
 millions of rubles opened the world-wide campaigns of 
 the imperialists, with the aim of preventing, first, trade 
 relations with England which were begun by Krassin, 
 and also the imminent conclusion of trade relations with 
 America. This shows that the enemies who surround us, 
 no longer able to bring about intervention, are counting 
 upon a revolt. The events at Kronstadt revealed ties 
 with the international bourgeoisie; and in addition to 
 it we see that more than anything else they now fear,
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 209 
 
 from the practical standpoint of international capital, 
 the sound establishment of trade relations. But they 
 will be unable to prevent it. There are now in Moscow 
 representatives of big capital, who did not believe these 
 rumors, and they have told us how in America a certain 
 group of citizens carried on an unprecedented agitation 
 for Soviet Russia. This group made extracts of every- 
 thing printed about Russia for a few months in news- 
 papers of the most diverse kinds about the flight of 
 Lenin and Trotsky, about Lenin's shooting Trotsky and 
 vice-versa, and they published all this in the form of a 
 pamphlet. Better agitation for the Soviet power cannot 
 be imagined. The contemporary American bourgeois 
 press has completely described itself. . . . 
 
 Was there ever a wilder farrago of gross exaggeration 
 and misstatement ? A few foolish rumors are taken from 
 thousands of substantiated dispatches and reproduced 
 as giving a fair picture of the American press on Russia ! 
 But we must note, especially, that Lenin appreciates the 
 aid he is getting in his propaganda from "a certain 
 group" of American citizens, while at the same time he 
 openly boasts of the British trade agreement from the 
 practical standpoint as a defeat of international capital, 
 i.e., a defeat of all existing governments (all regarded as 
 capitalistic by Lenin) and of the existing social system. 
 
 A part of the so-called trade agitation has been the 
 claim that the Soviets were abandoning Communism not 
 only in making trade agreements with capitalists but 
 in other directions. Such changes as have in fact taken 
 place could be so absurdly misinterpreted and misunder- 
 stood only by those who have made no effort to follow 
 the Bolshevist policy. The Bolshevist chiefs, and es- 
 pecially their foreign diplomats, have never hesitated
 
 210 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 to use any and all methods for their purposes. In a 
 letter which appeared in Pravda on December 10th, 
 1920, addressed to the Italian Socialists at a moment 
 which Lenin thought to be "the eve of the revolution," 
 the Bolshevist leader thus advised the Italian revolu- 
 tionists : 
 
 The Italian party, in order to carry out the revolution 
 successfully, must still take a certain number of steps 
 to the Left without tying itself down and without for- 
 getting that circumstances may very well demand some 
 steps to the Right. 
 
 This advice is typical. Foreign trade agreements and 
 other negotiations regarded abroad as compromises are 
 not only presented to the Russian people as victories 
 but are evidently so considered by the Bolshevist chiefs. 
 The apparent concessions made to capitalism by the Rus- 
 sian Communist Congress about the time of the British 
 Trade Agreement are explained by Krassin, the chief 
 negotiator, as follows: 
 
 As we recede from wartime conditions and advance 
 toward reconstruction and peace, we proceed toward a 
 business-like adaptation of our methods to those of real 
 life. We call it neither going to the right nor to the 
 left. Whatever reports we may receive here, I am sure 
 that Lenin will never abandon his communistic prin- 
 ciples, but as he is a practical man with a practical 
 mind, he may decide in one matter or another to take 
 a practical course with regard to present-day conditions. 
 
 A Moscow wireless (April 16th, 1921) cynically and 
 frankly states the Bolshevists' plan to repudiate any
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 211 
 
 treaty at the first favorable moment, as they did that of 
 Brest-Litovsk. It may be said that the following dis- 
 patch is for home consumption by the ultra-revolutionists 
 of Soviet Russia. But as long as such matter uncon- 
 tradicted is the sole pabulum officially furnished the 
 Russian people (the opposition being prohibited) how 
 can we expect anything but a continuation of treaty- 
 breaking to result ? The dispatch is as follows : 
 
 The present peace is only an armed truce. We cannot 
 base our peaceful policies on the present peace treaties, 
 because the peace itself is not secured. All Europe is 
 boiling. We do not know what will happen to-morrow. 
 All our treaties are just like the Brest treaty and may 
 suddenly become pieces of paper. But it makes no dif- 
 ference to us at present. We are striving to get in touch 
 with the Far West (East?). Our chief aim still remains 
 the fight with capitalism. But first we must give our 
 country time to rest. For a while we are smiling sweetly 
 at Lloyd George and shaking his hand, but our policy 
 remains the same. We shall profit by the short breath- 
 ing space offered us and then deal a death blow to capi- 
 talism. 
 
 Among the working people the agitation for a trade 
 agreement with Soviet Russia is put forward on the 
 double ground that it would give employment to the 
 American workers and that it would relieve the suffer- 
 ing in Russia. The argument that it would give employ- 
 ment to American labor is fully answered by Secretary 
 Hughes in response to a letter by President Gompers 
 requesting information in this matter. President Gom- 
 pers' letter was as follows:
 
 212 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 March 15, 1921. 
 SIR: 
 
 If it is not incompatible with the public interest would 
 it be possible for me to secure information from your 
 department relative to the situation in Soviet Russia? 
 
 There is much propaganda being circulated in the 
 United States claiming that the demand for manufac- 
 tured goods in Russia is so great and the purchasing 
 power of the Russian Soviet government so vast it is 
 almost impossible to determine the actual capacity of 
 the Russian market to absorb goods of foreign manu- 
 facture. Ths scarcity of goods is laid to the blockade, 
 which as I understand it was removed July 8, 1920. 
 It is said that the pressing needs of the Russians are 
 large quantities of the following : 
 
 "Locomotives, cars, rails, tires, springs, etc. Tractors, 
 plows, reapers, mowers, binders, harrows, and other tools, 
 large and small, binder twine, motor trucks. Leather 
 goods: shoes, etc. Textiles. Chemicals, drugs, soap. 
 Notions. Belting, all kinds. Oil well machinery and 
 piping. Mining machinery. Rubber goods. Ties. 
 Typewriters. Sewing machines. Surgical instruments. 
 Machinery and machine tools of all sorts. Printing 
 presses, and printing supplies. Small tools. Sheet iron. 
 Tool steel. Camera and camera supplies, films, etc. Raw 
 cotton. ' ' 
 
 It is also claimed that the Commissariat of Foreign 
 Trade of the Soviet government has given orders for 
 the purchase of the following in America : 
 
 "Agricultural machinery, including tractors, mowers, 
 binders, reapers, plows, cultivators, etc., specified orders 
 to the extent of $50,000,000.00; machine tools, between 
 $3,000,000.00 to $5,000,000.00; small tools, files, drills, etc. 
 between $3,000,000.00 and $5,000,000.00; 30,000 to 
 100,000 tons of rails; 10,000 tons of locomotive ties; 
 250 tons of spring steel for locomotive -and car springs; 
 10,000 tons of sheet iron; 50,000 tons of piping."
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 213 
 
 These figures, it is claimed, do not represent all the 
 orders that would be placed at once. 
 
 It is alleged that the Federal Reserve Board has 
 refused to permit the transfer of funds to the United 
 States from the Soviet Russian government in order to 
 pay for the goods, although payment in gold is guaran- 
 teed. It is claimed that the American manufacturers 
 are prevented from accepting the gold on the probability 
 that it was illegally acquired by the Soviet government. 
 
 It is also said that the following raw materials are 
 ready for shipment to the United States if only the 
 American government recognizes the Soviet government 
 of Russia: 
 
 "Lumber, unlimited quantities; Flax, 20,000 tons; 
 Hemp, 10,000 tons; Furs, 9,000,000 pelts; Bristles, 
 sorted and cleaned, 1,000 tons; Horse hair, 2,000 tons; 
 Manganese ore, 250,000 tons; Asbestos, 8,000 tons; 
 Hides, 3,500,000 skins; Platinum, large quantities; 
 Petroleum and petroleum products, 2,000,000 tons." 
 
 Another claim made is that if the restrictions placed 
 on trade with Russia were removed it would place in 
 operation many mills, shops and factories now closed 
 down and would give employment to the unemployed 
 of America. 
 
 This propaganda is being widely circulated among 
 labor organizations and I have received many letters 
 asking me what is the truth. In this connection I have 
 repeatedly called attention to the action of the American 
 Federation of Labor convention at Montreal, June 7-19, 
 1920, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the American Federation of Labor 
 is not justified in taking any action which could 
 be construed as an assistance to, or approval of, the 
 Soviet government of Russia as long as that government 
 is based upon authority which has not been vested in 
 it by a popular representative national assemblage of 
 the Russian people ; or so long as it endeavors to create 
 rcrolutions in the well-established, civilized nations of
 
 214 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 the world; or so long as it advocates and applies the 
 militarization of labor and prevents the organizing and 
 functioning of trade unions and the maintenance of a 
 free press and free public assemblage." 
 
 This resolution was based on a report made by the 
 Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor 
 and previously unanimously approved by the convention 
 as follows: 
 
 "Bolshevism has been a lure for some of our people 
 and its doctrines have been propagated with great vigor. 
 This hideous doctrine has found converts among two 
 classes of people principally those intellectuals, so- 
 called, who have no occupation save that of following 
 one fad after another, and those so beaten in the game 
 of life that they find no appeal in anything except the 
 most desperate and illogical schemes. The rank and file 
 of the organized labor movement, as was to have been 
 expected, has given no countenance to the propaganda 
 of Bolshevism, but has, on the contrary, been its most 
 effective opponent in America." 
 
 Whether the statements in the circular are true or 
 untrue, the widest publicity of the facts should be given. 
 It would be more effective if it could be in official form. 
 If that can not be done the proper knowledge should be 
 transmitted to the various organizations that have resolu- 
 tions on the subject before them for approval or disap- 
 proval and only awaiting an answer from me as to the 
 real situation. 
 
 I, therefore, request, if it is not contrary to the rules 
 of the Department of State or if not against the public 
 interest, that you furnish me with such information as 
 you might have on the matter. I would also like to 
 know the amount of exports and imports between the 
 United States and Russia for a number of years preced- 
 ing the war, as it is claimed these would be enormous 
 because they have been enormous in the past. 
 
 This question is of vital interest to the people of the 
 United States as they should not be misled by propa-
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 215 
 
 ganda that is consciously or unconsciously directed to 
 aid the Soviet government of Russia against the interests 
 of our people. I therefore trust that I am not asking 
 too much. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) Sam'l Gompers. 
 
 President, 
 
 American Federation of Labor. 
 Hon. Charles Evans Hughes, 
 Secretary of State, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Here is the response of the Secretary of State: 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 
 
 Washington. 
 Mr. Samuel Gompers, 
 
 President, American Federation of Labor, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 SIR: 
 
 The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of March 
 15, 1921, in regard to the trade relations between the 
 United States and Russia. 
 
 I recognize the interest of the American people in the 
 questions you raise and I take pleasure in replying in 
 detail to them. 
 
 In reply to your first statement, it is evident that after 
 years of war, during which normal industry was diverted 
 to the production of war supplies and accumulated stocks 
 were consumed, Russia does not now possess important , 
 quantities of commodities which might be exported. It 
 should be remembered that in addition to the period 
 of the war against Germany, Russia has now passed 
 through more than three years of a civil war during 
 which industrial activities have been almost completely 
 paralyzed. In fact the devastation of industry in Russia 
 has been so complete, the poverty of the country is so
 
 216 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 acute, the people are so hungry and the demand for 
 commodities is so great that at present Russia represents 
 a gigantic economic vacuum and no evidence exists that 
 the unfortunate situation above described is likely to 
 be alleviated so long as the present political and economic 
 system continues. Though there is almost no limit to 
 the amount and variety of commodities urgently needed 
 by Russia, the purchasing power of that country is now 
 at a minimum, and the demand must consequently re- 
 main unsatisfied. 
 
 In some respects the condition of Russia is analogous 
 to that of other European countries. The war has left 
 the people with diminished productive man-power and 
 largely increased numbers of the disabled, the sick and 
 the helpless. In one important respect, however, Rus- 
 sia's condition does not correspond to that of other bel- 
 ligerent states in the world war. While those states 
 are taking such action as is likely to reestablish con- 
 fidence, the attitude and action of the present authorities 
 of Russia have tended to undermine its political and 
 economic relations with other countries. The Russian 
 people are unable to obtain credit which otherwise might 
 be based on the vast potential wealth of Russia and are 
 compelled to be deprived of commodities immediately 
 necessary for consumption, raw materials and permanent 
 productive equipment. The effect of this condition is 
 that Russia is unable to renew normal economic 
 activities, and apparently will be unable to obtain 
 urgently needed commodities until credits may be ex- 
 tended to Russia on a sound basis. 
 
 It should not be overlooked that there has been a 
 steady degeneration in even those industries in Soviet 
 Russia that were not dependent upon imports of either 
 raw material or partly finished products, nor in which 
 has there been any shortage of labor. The Russian 
 production of coal, of iron and steel, of flax, cotton, 
 leather, lumber, sulfuric acid, or copper, of agricultural 
 products, of textiles, and the maintenance and repair ^
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 217 
 
 of railroad equipment, have degenerated steadily from 
 their level of production at the time of the Bolshevik 
 revolution. There can be no relation of the failure of 
 all these industries to blockades or to civil war, for 
 most of them require no imports, and the men mobilized 
 since the Soviet revolution were far less in number than 
 before that event. 
 
 During the existence of civil war in Russia, her ports 
 were in the hands of anti-Soviet forces. However, trade 
 with the world through Baltic ports was opened in April, 
 1920. Restrictions on direct trade with Russia were 
 removed by the United States on July 8, 1920. The 
 conclusion of treaties of peace with the Baltic States 
 enabled Russia freely to enter upon trade with Europe 
 and the United States. Both American and European 
 goods have been sold to Russia, but the volume of trade 
 has been unimportant due to the inability of Russia to 
 pay for imports. 
 
 As suggested in your second statement, it is true that 
 agents purporting to be representatives of the so-called 
 Bolshevist Commissariat of Foreign Trade have placed 
 immense orders for the purchase of goods in the United 
 States, Europe and Asia. It is estimated that perhaps 
 six and one half billion dollars' worth of orders have 
 been booked. But shipments as a result of these orders 
 have been made only in small volume because the Soviet 
 agents were unable either to pay cash or to obtain credit so 
 as to insure the delivery of the goods ordered. The 
 actual result of the placing of these immense orders on 
 the part of the Soviet regime has not, therefore, ma- 
 terially stimulated industry in the countries in which 
 the orders* were placed, but has chiefly resulted in 
 further impairing the credit of the Soviet regime due 
 to its inability to carry out the transactions which it had 
 undertaken. 
 
 Much has been written about the large sums of Rus- 
 sian gold which have found their way abroad in ex- 
 change for foreign goods. In reality, such transfers of
 
 218 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 gold have been relatively small. According to the most 
 liberal estimates the Soviet authorities do not now have 
 in their possession more than $175,000,000 worth of gold. 
 It is apparent that the proportionate share of this 
 amount of gold which might be expected to reach the 
 United States, and even the immediate expenditure of 
 all of this amount of gold in the United States, would 
 not have a pronounced or lasting effect upon the ad- 
 vancement of American industry and trade, while its 
 loss to Russia would take away the scant hope that is 
 left of a sound reorganization of the Russian system of 
 currency and finance. 
 
 In response to your question regarding the transfer 
 of funds from Russia to the United States it may be 
 stated that there are no restrictions on the importation 
 of Russian gold into the United States, and since Decem- 
 ber 18, 1920, there have been no restrictions on the 
 exportation of coin, bullion and currency to Soviet Rus- 
 sia or on dealings or exchange transactions in. Russian 
 roubles or on transfers of credit or exchange transac- 
 tions with Soviet Russia. It is true that no assurances 
 can be given that Russian gold will be accepted by the 
 Federal Reserve Banks or the Mint, in view of the fact 
 that these public institutions must be fully assured that 
 the legal title to the gold accepted by them is not open 
 to question. 
 
 It has often been stated that if the Government of the 
 United States would recognize the so-called Soviet Gov- 
 ernment, Russia would immediately export immense 
 quantities of lumber, flax, hemp, fur and other commo- 
 dities. The facts in regard to supplies in Russia com- 
 pletely refute such statements. Russia does not to-day 
 have on hand for export commodities which might be 
 made the basis of immediately profitable trade with the 
 United States. Furthermore, the transportation system 
 is utterly inadequate to move any large quantity of 
 goods either in the interior of Russia or to Russian 
 ports. The export of such commodities as exist in Rus-
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 219 
 
 sia at the present time would result merely in further 
 increasing the misery of the Russian people. 
 
 The issue of January 1, 1921 of "Economic Life," an 
 official organ of the so-called Soviet Government, reports 
 that the production of lumber amounted to seventy 
 million cubic feet in 1920, as compared with four hun- 
 dred million cubic feet in 1912. The production of 
 lumber is, therefore, less than one-fifth of the pre-war 
 level, even though the lumber industry is in far better 
 circumstances than other important Russian industries. 
 This same situation is further illustrated by the follow- 
 ing article appearing in the "Economic Life" of Feb- 
 ruary 6, 1921: 
 
 "By December 20 the following supplies were gath- 
 ered: 
 
 Horse hides 3,831 12 per cent of am t expected 
 
 Colt hides 1,142 35 ' ' 
 
 Cattle hides 22,701 20.6 " 
 
 Calf hides 15,679 14.6 " 
 
 Sheep hides 37,771 58 " 
 
 Flax poods 22,871 12 " 
 
 Hemp 6,863 18 '< 
 
 Bristles 99 14 " 
 
 "The Government of Ekaterinburg, which occupies a 
 high place in furnishing food supplies, for several rea- 
 sons has proven to be very weak in furnishing raw 
 materials. 
 
 "During the past week the results of the work have 
 become still smaller, reaching zero in some places, in 
 spite of the extreme energy and intensity of the work." 
 
 Note is taken of the statement that if restriction on 
 trade with Russia were removed, many mills, shops and 
 factories in this country, which are now closed, would 
 resume operations, and unemployment would thereby be 
 diminished. Even before the war, trade with Russia, 
 including both exports and imports, constituted only 
 one and three-tenths per cent of the total trade of the 
 United States. In view of the fact that the purchasing
 
 220 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 power of Russia is now greatly diminished, as compared 
 with pre-war years, it is evident that at present even 
 under the most favorable circumstances the trade of 
 Russia could have but a minor influence on the indus- 
 trial and agricultural prosperity of the United States. 
 Under conditions actually prevailing in Russia, that 
 trade is of even less importance; a statement amply 
 demonstrated by the fact that though restrictions on 
 trade with Russia have been eliminated, no business of 
 consequence with that country has developed. 
 
 According to the reports of the Department of Com- 
 merce, our total trade with Russia for the fiscal year 
 ending June 30, 1913, was as follows: 
 
 Imports from European Eussia $26,958,690 
 
 Imports from Asiatic Eussia 2,356,527 
 
 $29,315,217 
 
 Exports to European Eussia $25,363,795 
 
 Exports to Asiatic Eussia 1,101,419 
 
 $26,465,214 
 Total trade between Eussia and the United 
 
 States $55,780,431 
 
 The total imports into the United States for the fiscal 
 year ending June 30, 1913, were $1,813,008,234, and the 
 total exports for the same year were $2,465,884,149, the 
 total of both imports and exports amounting, therefore, 
 to $4,278,892,383. 
 
 For the calendar year 1920, the total trade of the 
 United States was: 
 
 Exports $8,228,000,000 
 
 Imports 5,279,000,000 
 
 Total $13,507,000,000 
 
 Excluding Finland, the Baltic States, Armenia, and 
 Georgia and Siberia for the periods when they have been
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 221 
 
 free of Soviet Domination, the trade of the United States 
 with Russia during 1920 was absolutely negligible, prob- 
 ably amounted to less than $4,000,000. 
 
 Though figures for trade with Russia during that 
 period are not available, there is every reason to believe 
 that it was of far less relative importance than in 1913. 
 
 It is unquestionably desirable that intimate and 
 mutually profitable commercial relations on an extensive 
 scale be established between the United States and Rus- 
 sia, and it is the sincere hope of this Government that 
 there may be readjustments in Russia which will make 
 it possible for that country to resume its proper place 
 in the economic life of the world. 
 
 I am enclosing herewith as of possible interest to you 
 in this connection, copies of the Department 's announce- 
 ment of July 7, 1920, of the Treasury Department's 
 announcement of December 20, 1920, of a statement 
 made by Mr. Alfred "W. Kliefoth, of the Foreign Trade 
 Adviser's Office of this Department, before the Com- 
 mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representa- 
 tives, and of an announcement made to the press by the 
 Secretary of State, dated March 25, 1921 ; also a brief 
 statement of the total trade with Russia for the fiscal 
 years ending June 30, 1911 and June 30, 1912. 
 
 I would also invite your attention to the recently 
 published hearings of the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
 of the House of Representatives, entitled ' ' Conditions in 
 Russia, ' ' and of the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
 the United States Senate, entitled "Relations with Rus- 
 sia." The former was held in compliance with House 
 Resolution No. 635, and the latter in compliance with 
 Senate Joint Resolution No. 164. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) Charles E. Hughes. 
 Enclosures: 
 
 (5) as stated above.
 
 222 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 This disposes of the argument that a trade agreement 
 with Soviet Russia could materially aid American in- 
 dustry. Even if trade were resumed on a pre-war basis, 
 which is practically impossible, it would scarcely increase 
 our exports by one per cent. But our foreign trade 
 absorbs only one-tenth of the product of American in- 
 dustry. It is, therefore, practically impossible that the 
 reopening of Russian trade on this comparatively large 
 scale could keep American industry going for more than 
 three or four hours! 
 
 Secretary of State Hughes has given a conclusive 
 answer to the argument that a trade agreement might 
 be materially helpful to the Russian people as long as 
 they are still the helpless subjects of the present "gov- 
 ernment." In addition we may point out that two 
 efforts were recently made to help the Russian people, 
 one through the Norwegian statesman, Nansen, and the 
 other through the Russian cooperative organizations. 
 The Soviet Government refused both offers because the 
 supplies to be sent were not to be left in the hands of 
 the Bolshevists. Rather than to lose this chance of 
 strengthening their own hold over the Russian people 
 they decided to let the suffering of their helpless subjects 
 continue. 
 
 It must also be remembered in this connection that 
 whatever the hidden objects of the British trade agree- 
 ment, the position of the British Government would be 
 strengthened by a similar policy on the part of the 
 United States. The report sent out by Moscow wireless 
 on November 17th, 1920, that "England is carrying on 
 in the United States agitation in favor of a renewal 
 of trade relations with Soviet Russia" is, at least, plau-
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 223 
 
 sible. A number of well-known Englishmen have been 
 agitating for that object by speeches and by articles 
 in the American press. Possibly the intention is that 
 America shall provide the credits without which the 
 British- Soviet agreement must remain an empty form. 
 This agitation certainly offers no reason why America 
 should fall in with the designs of the British Govern- 
 ment. The British Empire is threatened by the Soviet 
 military forces around the Black Sea and in Mesopo- 
 tamia, Persia, Afghanistan and the Pamir region and 
 by Bolshevist propaganda not only in these districts but 
 also in Turkey, Egypt, India, and China. The foreign 
 policies of the powerful British Labor Party as well as 
 the Independent Liberals are thoroughly pro-Soviet. 
 Certain groups of British capitalists fear they might get 
 less out of Russia from a democratic and patriotic 
 peasants' government than from the cynical diplomacy 
 of the Bolshevists ready to give to foreigners the title 
 to everything in Russia, so far as this is necessary to 
 secure the means needed to hold their power and prevent 
 popular government. In the same way a certain school 
 of British diplomats note that Lenin is ready to alienate 
 Russian territory in the belief he can win it back or 
 at least control it by instigating revolutions. These 
 financiers and diplomatists have another view of future 
 probabilities. In the meanwhile they are ready to take 
 advantage, for the purposes of the British Empire, of 
 Lenin's willingness to sign away Russia's territory, 
 natural wealth, and industries. These are certainly 
 among the leading motives of British opinion on Russia 
 and so undoubtedly influence British policy if, indeed, 
 they do not dominate it.
 
 224 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 America neither hopes to gain anything at the cost 
 of the Russian people, nor has this nation anything to 
 fear at home or abroad from the band of insane fanatics 
 momentarily in control of that great country. We are 
 concerned with Bolshevism as a world evil, which 
 operates in varying degrees in many countries. But we 
 regard it neither as an indomitable power which we are 
 forced to recognize and conciliate, nor as a movement 
 with which honorable governments can afford to co- 
 operate as the beneficiaries of its unparalleled crimes 
 against the Russian people. 
 
 The danger that the pro-Soviet agitation may be 
 revived is not past. Krassin has boldly stated that the 
 British trade agreement was obtained not by any funda- 
 mental concessions of communism to capitalism but by 
 propaganda, and he plans to station himself now in 
 Canada, whence he says he hopes to return "via New 
 York." Provided only he will come "as an individual" 
 certain Senators say he will be welcome. But he can 
 operate quite effectively from Canada. 
 
 What makes the Soviet campaign in America danger- 
 ous to some extent is the curious espousal of the Soviet 
 cause by numerous so-called "liberals" and by the radi- 
 cal minority grouped in various camps. 
 
 Historians will look back upon this support of Soviet- 
 ism with a smile, a sardonic grin at the pretenders of 
 to-day. 
 
 Liberalism, when it is true to its mission, seeks the 
 extension of democratic practice and the enlargement of 
 the opportunities in democracy. It is the implacable 
 foe of autocracy and of all dictatorial practices. The 
 diseased state of mind that calls itself liberalism in
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 225 
 
 America at the moment is guilty of betraying democracy 
 in the most portentous situation of our time. It sneers 
 at the democracy of America, turns up a supercilious 
 nose at the great American labor movement, and rushes 
 with abnormal appetite into the social and moral violence 
 of Moscow. 
 
 Perhaps some of this phenomenon is due to the fact 
 that the so-called liberals of America have fallen victim 
 to a mania for mysticism and Moscow is the small end 
 of the cornucopia from which is emitted the great haze 
 the great narcotic supply of all the conglomeration of 
 mental morphia addicts. 
 
 What this condition makes necessary is that Americans 
 must distinguish between the true liberals and the false 
 liberals, the real liberalism and the pretense of liberalism. 
 
 The pretending liberalism is for Sovietism in Russia 
 and for American recognition of that reversion to bar- 
 baric type. 
 
 If, as we are told, all that now is required by the 
 Soviets is a de facto recognition, let there be no mis- 
 apprehension as to what that means. That means recog- 
 nition to the extent that we declare the Soviet Govern- 
 ment to be the government in fact the government that 
 is. An official Soviet wireless on September 10 said: 
 
 The only thing which the Russian Government de- 
 mands is that de facto relations be resumed, as it is 
 obvious that otherwise trade relations are impossible; 
 therefore such resumption of de facto relations is in- 
 separable from trade relations. 
 
 Plain notice, this, to the world that Russia will pay
 
 226 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS 
 
 in trade for recognition. It is an offer to bribe the sup- 
 posedly gold-hungry Americans. 
 
 What the Soviets hope would follow such de facto 
 recognition and free resumption of trade would be un- 
 limited opportunity to attempt corruption of the world 
 by propaganda. 
 
 The United States has lifted all trade bans. This 
 government interposes no legal, barrier to trade with 
 Soviet Russia. A treasury order signed on December 
 20 took down the last barrier, permitting exportation 
 of gold to Russia and allowing dealings in exchange. 
 
 This is surely enough. If it is too much may be a 
 fair subject for discussion. But we have gone that far. 
 Surely, democratic America will take no further step 
 in compromise with an autocracy the like of which the 
 world has never seen. 
 
 Information about Russia continues to accumulate. 
 Only those who are determined not to be informed can 
 remain uninformed. Upon encountering a questioning 
 opponent the exponents of Sovietism say that we do not 
 know what are the conditions in Russia and advise us 
 to "wait until we can get the truth." 
 
 This is subterfuge that deceives only the unthinking. 
 We do know the great, main truth about Russia and 
 we do have fairly accurate information as to the material 
 conditions of the people. It is perhaps no fault of the 
 rigid control of visitors' permits exercised by the Soviets 
 that numerous persons have gone into Russia as fervent 
 Soviet advocates only to come out running, hands over 
 their faces, like fugitives from a scourge. That ardent 
 Socialist H. G. Wells found conditions so terrible that 
 for a defense of the Soviets he had to resort to the
 
 CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 227 
 
 plea that no other government could stand and that if 
 the Soviets fell we should have a nation of Asiatic hordes 
 running stark wild over the country. 
 
 The all important thing that Americans know about 
 Russia is that in every sense the Soviet Government and 
 the philosophy back of it are absolute in their denial 
 and repudiation of democracy. This is the principle 
 that has been at stake in all the history of the contest 
 between freedom and slavery, self-government and auto- 
 cratic government, light and darkness. This was the 
 issue in the struggle against Prussianism. It was the 
 issue when the first man, in answer to a spark that had 
 been lighted in his soul, struck the first blow against 
 imperial rule. It is the issue over which the agonies 
 of the world have rolled. It is an issue on which Ameri- 
 cans can not be deceived and from which they will not 
 be budged.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 
 
 THE friendship of American Labor for the Russian 
 people has been invariable, steadfast, and unqualified. 
 In a series of cablegrams the American Federation of 
 Labor and its President have expressed at length their 
 ardent interest in the permanent welfare of Russian 
 labor and of the Russian people generally. This meant 
 uncompromising hostility to Czarism and it means un- 
 compromising repudiation of Sovietism. These cable- 
 grams prove that American labor understands the ele- 
 ments of the Russian situation and takes its stand heart 
 and soul with Russian labor and the Russian people. 
 
 CABLEGRAM 
 
 Washington April 2, 1917. 
 
 Tstcheidze [President of the "Soviet"] 
 
 Petrograd 
 
 Representative of working people of Russia. Accept 
 this message to the men of labor of Russia. We send 
 greeting. The newly established liberty of Russia finds 
 a warm response in the hearts of America's workers. We 
 rejoice at the intelligence, courage and the conviction 
 of a people who even while concentrating every effort 
 upon defense against foreign aggression have reorgan- 
 ized their own institutions upon principles of freedom 
 and democracy. But it is impossible to achieve the ideal 
 state immediately. When the right foundation has been 
 
 228
 
 AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 229 
 
 established, the masses can daily utilize opportunities 
 for progress, more complete justice, and greater liberty. 
 Freedom is achieved in meeting the problems of life and 
 work. It cannot be established by revolution only it is 
 the product of evolution. Even in the Republic of the 
 United States of America the highest ideals of freedom 
 are incomplete but we have the will and the opportu- 
 nity. In the name of America's workers whose watch- 
 words are Justice Freedom and Humanity we plead that 
 Russia's workers and masses shall maintain what you 
 have already achieved and practically and rationally 
 solve the problems of today and safeguard the future 
 from the reactionary forces who would gladly take ad- 
 vantage of your lack of unity to reestablish the old 
 regime of royalty reaction tyranny and injustice. Our 
 best wishes are with Russia in her new opportunity. 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS 
 
 President 
 American Federation of Labor. 
 
 (S/ABLEGRAM 
 
 Washington, D. C., 
 
 April 23, 1917. 
 Tstcheidze, 
 
 Petrograd 
 
 Executive Council American Federation of Labor in 
 regular session here as representatives of the labor move- 
 ment of America send fraternal greetings to you and 
 through you to all who have aided in establishing liberty 
 in Russia. "We know that liberty means opportunity for 
 the masses especially the workers. The best thought, 
 hopes and support of America's workers are with your 
 efforts to form a government that shall insure the per- 
 petuity of freedom and protect your rights and new 
 found liberty against the insidious forces and agents of 
 reaction and despotism. May we not urge you to build
 
 230 APPENDIX I 
 
 practically and constructively. Our heartfelt sympathy 
 is with you in the great opportunity and work that lie 
 before you. 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS 
 JAMES DUNCAN 
 JAMES O'CONNELL 
 Jos. F. VALENTINE 
 JOHN R. ALPINE 
 H. B. PERHAM 
 FRANK DUFFY 
 WILLIAM GREEN 
 W. D. MAHON 
 JOHN B. LENNON 
 FRANK MORRISON 
 
 Executive Council 
 American Federation of Labor 
 
 Washington, May 6, 1917. 
 
 Workmen's and Soldiers' Council [Soviet] of Deputies, 
 Petrograd, Kussia. 
 
 The gravest crisis in the world's history is now hang- 
 ing in the balance, and the course which Russia will 
 pursue may have a determining influence whether 
 democracy or autocracy shall prevail. That democracy 
 and freedom will finally prevail there can be no doubt 
 in the minds of men who know, but the cost, the time 
 lost and the sacrifices which would ensue from lack of 
 united action may be appalling. It is to avoid this that 
 I address you. 
 
 In view of the grave crisis through which the Russian 
 people are passing we assure you that you can rely 
 absolutely upon the whole-hearted support and cooper- 
 ation of the American people in the great war against 
 our common enemy, Kaiserism. In the fulfillment of 
 that cause the present American Government has the
 
 AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 231 
 
 support of 99 per cent, of the American people, including 
 the working class both of the cities and of the agricul- 
 tural sections. 
 
 In free America, as in free Russia, the agitators for 
 a peace favorable to Prussian militarism have been 
 allowed to express their opinions so that the conscious 
 and unconscious tools of the Kaiser appear more influ- 
 ential than they really are. You should realize the truth 
 of the situation. There are but few in America willing 
 to allow Kaiserism and its allies to continue their rule 
 over those non-German peoples who wish to be free from 
 their domination. Should we not protest against the 
 pro-Kaiser Socialist interpretation of the demand for no 
 annexation, namely, that all oppressed non-German 
 peoples shall be compelled to remain under the domina- 
 tion of Prussia and her lackeys Austria and Turkey? 
 Should we not rather accept the better interpretation 
 that there must be no forcible annexations, but that 
 every people must be free to choose any allegiance it 
 desires, as demanded by the Council of "Workmen's and 
 Soldiers' Deputies? 
 
 Like yourselves, we are opposed to all punitive ana 
 improper indemnities. We denounce the onerous puni- 
 tive indemnities already imposed by the Kaiser upon the 
 people of Serbia, Belgium and Poland. 
 
 America's workers share the view of the Council of 
 "Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies that the only way 
 in which the German people can bring the war to an 
 early end is by imitating the glorious example of the 
 Russian people, compelling the abdication of the Hohen- 
 zollerns and the Hapsburgs, and driving the tyrannous 
 nobility, bureaucracy and the military caste from power. 
 
 Let the German Socialists attend to this, and cease 
 their false pretenses and underground plotting to bring 
 about an abortive peace in the interest of Kaiserism and 
 the ruling class. Let them cease calling pretended "in- 
 ternational" conferences at the instigation or connivance 
 of the Kaiser. Let them cease their intrigues to cajole
 
 232 APPENDIX I 
 
 the Russian and American working people to interpret 
 your demand, "no annexations, no indemnities," in a 
 way to leave undiminished the prestige and the power 
 of the German military caste. 
 
 Now that Russian autocracy is overthrown, neither 
 the American government nor the American people ap- 
 prehend that the wisdom and experience of Russia in 
 the coming constitutional assembly will adopt any form 
 of government other than the one best suited to your 
 needs. We feel confident that no message, no individual 
 emissary and no commission has been sent, or will be 
 sent, with authority to offer any advice whatever to 
 Russia as to the conduct of her internal affairs. Any 
 commission that may be sent will help Russia in any 
 way that she desires to combat Kaiserism wherever it 
 exists or may manifest itself. 
 
 "Word has reached us that false reports of an American 
 purpose and of American opinions contrary to the above 
 statement have gained some circulation in Russia. We 
 denounce these reports as the criminal work of desperate 
 pro-Kaiser propagandists circulated with the intent to 
 deceive and to arouse hostile feelings between the two 
 great democracies of the world. The Russian people 
 should know that these activities are only additional 
 manifestations of the "dark forces" with which Russia 
 has been only too familiar in the unhappy past. 
 
 The American Government, the American people, the 
 American labor movement are whole-heartedly with the 
 Russian workers, the Russian masses, in the great effort 
 to maintain the freedom you have already achieved and 
 to solve the grave problems yet before you. We earnestly 
 appeal to you to make common cause with us to abolish 
 all forms of autocracy and despotism, and to establish 
 and maintain for generations yet unborn the priceless 
 treasures of justice, freedom, democracy and humanity. 
 American Federation of Labor, 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS, President.
 
 AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 233 
 
 CABLEGRAM 
 
 Washington 
 
 September 13, 1917. 
 
 Kerensky Premier Russian Revolutionary Government 
 Petrograd Russia 
 
 At a tremendously important national conference 
 three days of representatives of labor and socialists at 
 Minneapolis Minnesota September fifth sixth seventh 
 called to solidify working class and all people of United 
 States among other declarations the following was 
 adopted with great enthusiasm and without a dissent- 
 ing voice or vote. We address ourselves to the: 
 
 "Sons of liberty in all lands are now watching with 
 heavy hearts the desperate contest of their brothers in 
 spirit and arms now battling on the plains of Russia. 
 Born amidst the thunders of the greatest war of all 
 times, the great Russian democracy brought to all lovers 
 of man's freedom a new hope and inspiration. Assailed 
 on all sides by a terrible and insidious foe, now spread- 
 ing death and devastation in its ranks and now masquer- 
 ading as a friend and penetrating, under the guise of a 
 revolutionist into the very councils of the revolution, 
 the Russian democracy is now passing through the most 
 critical time in its struggle for existence. 
 
 The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy 
 sends greetings to the fighters for liberty in Russia as 
 brothers in the same cause. The aims of the Russian 
 democracy are our aims; its victory is our victory and 
 its defeat is our defeat ; and even the traitors that assail 
 the Russian democracy likewise assail us. In the con- 
 flict for the liberty of Russia, the liberty of America is 
 likewise at stake. Every Russian soldier who faces un- 
 flinchingly the enemy in the field is striking a blow for 
 the liberty of America. 
 
 The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, 
 representing every loyal thought of American Labor and
 
 234 APPENDIX I 
 
 American Socialism, pledges and dedicates the American 
 working class to the support and service of the Russian 
 democracy. It calls upon the working people and the 
 Socialists of America and also upon the government of 
 the United States to strain every effort and resource in 
 their command to the aid of the Russian democracy. ' ' 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS, 
 
 President, American Federation of Labor; 
 President, American Alliance for Labor and Democracy. 
 
 CABLEGRAM 
 
 Washington March 12 1918. 
 All Russian Soviet, Moscow. 
 
 We address you in the name of world liberty. We 
 assure you that the people of the United States are 
 pained by every blow at Russian freedom, as they would 
 be by a blow at their own. The American people desire 
 to be of service to the Russian people in their struggle 
 to safeguard freedom and realize its opportunities. We 
 desire to be informed as to how we can help. We speak 
 for a great organized movement of working people who 
 are devoted to the cause of freedom and the ideals of 
 democracy. We assure you also that the whole American 
 nation ardently desires to be helpful to Russia and awaits 
 with eagerness an indication from Russia as to how help 
 may most effectively be extended. To all those who 
 strive for freedom we say, Courage. Justice must 
 1 triumph if all free people stand united against autocracy. 
 We await your suggestions. 
 
 American Alliance for Labor and Democracy. 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS, President. 
 
 This cablegram was sent before the full news of the 
 overthrow of the Constitutional Assembly had reached 
 America.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 THE SOVIET ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 
 
 No better test can be found of any social system than 
 its administration of justice. When that is utterly dis- 
 orderly and without semblance of equity, the whole 
 regime, we may be certain, is chaotic to the core. 
 
 In an article in the Journal of the American Bar Asso- 
 ciation, Judge Fisher writes that agents of the Soviet's 
 supreme tribunal may combine in one person arresting 
 officer, prosecutor, judge and executioner. He found 
 secret courts engrossed in litigation to recover bribes 
 promised by tradesmen but not paid. A former Moscow 
 lawyer justified the system of wholesale bribery, he said, 
 on the ground that it had become impossible to live at 
 all without it. Judge Fisher found widespread trading 
 despite the abolition of private property. Such illegal 
 transactions were so general that they only could have 
 been carried on with the connivance of corrupted officials. 
 
 Judges, the writer of the article found, were subject 
 to no restraint but the "Revolutionary conscience." An 
 effort was made to induce all workmen to act in that 
 capacity, and in Petrograd there already had been more 
 than 40,000 judges though there were only 40,000 
 workers. 
 
 Judges even in small villages had absolute power to 
 carry out their decrees and the Cheresvechaika "the 
 All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppres- 
 sion of Counter Revolution, Speculation and Sabotage" 
 continues to employ capital punishment in parts of 
 Russia which were declared to be under military rule, 
 
 235
 
 236 APPENDIX II 
 
 although, the death penalty was abolished in 1920. 
 Offenders in Moscow whose deaths were desired were 
 transferred to a military district for trial. 
 
 Judge Fisher says that the accused are not permitted 
 to face their judges and are not told the nature of the 
 charge nor given a chance to explain. Many have been 
 executed without even knowing that they had been con- 
 victed. The tribunal "has no regard for the action of 
 any other departments of the State." It is responsible 
 to no one, and even the communist officials fear it. There 
 is provision for appeal from the local or departmental 
 Cheresvechaika to the All-Russian, but ordinarily the 
 defendant has been executed before the appeal is per- 
 fected. Controlled by no law the tribunals, it is said, 
 openly use their power to avenge the wrongs attributed 
 to old-time enemies. 
 
 Judge Fisher, who is Chairman of the Russian and 
 Ukrainian Committee of the Joint Distribution Commit- 
 tee, ends with a plea for the innocent sufferers. 
 
 (Summarized by the New York Times.} 

 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 THE TURKO-BOLSHEVIST ATTACK ON THE 
 LABOR GOVERNMENT OP GEORGIA 
 
 AN APPEAL TO LABOR 
 
 THE Government of Georgia has issued from Constan- 
 tinople an appeal to all Socialist Parties and Labor 
 organizations "in the name of the Georgian people, 
 whose liberty and independence has just been destroyed 
 by the armies of the Russian Bolsheviks." The appeal 
 describes how the Moscow Government have striven to 
 extend their power over Georgia by "sovietizing" the 
 country through insurrections organized by its subsidized 
 agents. These efforts being unsuccessful, others were 
 tried, and military operations resorted to. 
 
 On November 28, 1920, Trotzky, in a long speech 
 before the Commissars of the Communist Party as- 
 sembled at Moscow, pronounced the death sentence on 
 the Republic of Georgia. "Armenia being sovietized, it 
 is now the turn of Georgia," he said. "It will be suf- 
 ficient to tighten our hold in order to connect Baku with 
 Batum." 
 
 Bolshevist troops were massed at the frontiers despite 
 protests of the Georgian Government. After refusing to 
 discuss matters the Moscow Government launched the 
 attack in the middle of February. The attack on Tiflis 
 was at first repulsed. On February 21 a rjadio telegram 
 
 237
 
 238 APPENDIX III 
 
 was despatched by the President of the Georgian Re- 
 public requesting Tchitcherine to "formulate the objects 
 of the war you are conducting against us. Perhaps we 
 can come to an understanding without bloodshed.", 
 Tchitcherine did not reply. Similar messages to Trotzky 
 and Lenin shared the same fate. 
 
 Finally, Georgia was surrounded by Bolshevist troops, 
 aided by those of the Turks at Angora. ' ' The treachery 
 of the Angora Government deprived us of the last pos- 
 sibility of continuing the struggle on the line at Rion. 
 Our troops, surrounded on two sides by the armies of 
 two great military powers Soviet Russia and Turkey 
 were condemned to perish without the smallest hope of 
 success. On March 17 the Georgian Government decided 
 to cease fighting, and to disband the army. This step 
 laid open tjie road to Batum to the Bolsheviks. On 
 March 18 the Government left Batum, and a few hours 
 later the Bolshevist troops entered the town." 
 
 The appeal concludes : 
 
 The Georgian people has the right to rely in this 
 struggle on the fraternal support of the international 
 proletariat. And it is to you, comrades, that we come 
 for this support! You have always condemned wars of 
 conquest. Are the authors of this war against Georgia 
 less culpable because they hide their imperialistic char- 
 acteristics under the flag of Communism? 
 
 We ask you to stigmatize the crime of the invaders 
 of our country, and the hypocrisy of those who have re- 
 course to bayonets to wipe out the influence of socialistic 
 ideas and to implant their own ideas. 
 
 Raise your voices, comrades, and demand from the 
 Government of Moscow that it withdraws its armies from 
 Georgia; that it gives the Georgian people the right to
 
 THE TURKO-BOLSHEVIST ATTACK 239 
 
 govern themselves, and to organize their life and their 
 State according to their own wishes. 
 
 NOE JORDANIA, President of the Govern- 
 ernment of Georgia, the Central Committee 
 of the Social-Democratic Party of Georgia, 
 and the Soviet of the Workmen of Tiflis. 
 
 NICHOLAS TCHEIDZE, President of the 
 Constituent Assembly, member of the C. C. 
 of the Social-Democratic Party. 
 
 EUGENE GUEGUETCHKORI, Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, member of the C. C. of the 
 Social-Democratic Party. 
 
 NOE RAMISHVILI, Minister of the Interior, 
 member of the C. C. of the Social-Dejnocratic 
 Party. 
 
 The whole Labor and Socialist press of Europe, both 
 the moderates of the Right Wing and the orthodox 
 Marxists and revolutionists of the Center, with few ex- 
 ceptions, has denounced this conquest as an example 
 of the crudest imperialism. For example, Die Freiheit 
 of Berlin, organ of the Independent Socialists, condemns 
 the Soviet action against Georgia as "a brutal imperial- 
 istic coup d' etat." (Die Freih&it, April 28th, 1921.)
 
 EXTRACTS from his Speech on the Tax in Kind before 
 the Congress of the Russian Communist Party, March 15, 
 1921. (Reproduced by Soviet Russia, May 15, 1921.) 
 
 In Russia the industrial workers are in the minority 
 <fud the small farmers overwhelmingly in the majority. 
 The social revolution in such a country may meet with 
 complete success only under two conditions: 
 
 1. It must be supported by the social revolution in one 
 or more of the advanced countries. As you know, much 
 has been accomplished in this respect in recent days, as 
 compared with the past, but this condition is still far 
 from fulfillment. 
 
 2. There must be an understanding between the pro- 
 letariat, which is the executor of the dictatorship and 
 holds the state power in its hands, and the majority of 
 the population. 
 
 After thus admitting the dictatorship and reiteratyig 
 his faith in a steadily approaching world revolution, 
 Lenin continued: 
 
 The small peasant has aims that ae not the same as 
 those of the worker. We kndw that only an understand- 
 ing with the peasantry can save the social revolution 
 until the revolution is ready to break out in other 
 countries. 
 
 240
 
 LENIN'S "CONVERSION" 241 
 
 Now what is the nature of the proposed understand- 
 ing? The Communist chief first shows that there is to 
 be no fundamental economic concession, no restoration 
 either of private property in land or of free trade in 
 agricultural products: 
 
 We must say [to the peasants] : if you want to go 
 backward, if you want to restore private property and 
 bring about free trade, this will mean that you are 
 handed over irrecoverably to the power of the landed 
 proprietors and capitalists. 
 
 The one great argument to produce an "understand- 
 ing" is that there is no choice for the peasant except 
 Bolshevism or Czarism. The very existence of agrarian 
 democracies is to be kept from him and, since his expe- 
 rience has been limited to Czarism and Bolshevism (ex- 
 cept a few months of the Kerensky regime) there is 
 some hope of success. On this point Lenin says: 
 
 A peasant who has even a modicum of class conscious- 
 ness cannot help understanding that we represent as a 
 government the working classes, those working classes 
 with whom the toiling peasant can agree (and the peas- 
 ants represent nine-tenths of our population). A class- 
 conscious peasant understands very well that every turn 
 for the worse means a return to the old Tsarist Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Lenin understands that the peasants cannot be con- 
 verted to Bolshevism at least for decades and genera- 
 tions, though he hopes that the process will be achieved 
 within a century with the aid of certain illusory eco- 
 nomic and material benefits, such as electrification (!) of
 
 242 APPENDIX IV 
 
 Bussia. In the meanwhile they are to be governed with- 
 out their consent by "the proletariat," or Communist 
 Party. He says: 
 
 The transformation of the entire psychology of the 
 petty peasants is a labor that will require generations. 
 This question of stabilizing the ideology of the small 
 peasants can be solved only on a material basis. The 
 application of tractors and machinery in agriculture on 
 a large scale, the electrification of the whole country, 
 would immediately produce a transformation of the 
 thought of the small peasants. And when I speak of 
 generations, remember that generations do not neces- 
 sarily mean centuries. You know very well that the 
 obtaining of tractors and machinery and the carrying 
 out of the electrification of a gigantic country are a 
 matter of decades. Objectively considered, that is the 
 state of things . . . 
 
 Our problem in this Congress is to formulate the main 
 lines of the question. Our party is a governing party 
 and the decision that the party congress adopts will be 
 binding for the whole Eepublic. 
 
 What now are the material concessions which are to 
 "satisfy" the agriculturists with a government over 
 which they have no control? Here is Lenin's project: 
 
 If we go carefully into this question we must at once 
 come to the conclusion that the small peasants can be 
 satisfied in two ways: in the first plape, ~by a certain 
 freedom of exchange of commodities, a certain freedom 
 for the small peasants, and, in the second place, we must 
 get commodities and products; for what would be the 
 use of a freedom to exchange commodities, if there are 
 no commodities to exchange? 
 
 If we were in a position to obtain even a small quan- 
 tity of commodities and the state should take possession
 
 LENIN'S "CONVERSION" 243 
 
 of these commodities, the proletariat now holding po- 
 litical power would receive, in addition to that political 
 power, the economic power also. 
 
 We cannot extricate ourselves from this difficulty 
 without resorting to freedom of local exchange of com- 
 modities. If this exchange of commodities gives to the 
 state a certain minimum quantity of grain, sufficient to 
 satisfy the needs of the cities, of the factories, and of 
 industry, this exchange of commodities will contribute 
 to solidify and strengthen the political and national 
 power of the proletariat. 
 
 In a word "local" free trade is to he permitted within 
 narrow limits (see Chapter VII) in a manner to increase 
 both the political and the economic power of "the pro- 
 letariat," i.e., the Communist Party, over the agricul- 
 tural majority. 
 
 Lenin then says: "We shall now be asked how and 
 where we are going to get the commodities?" For a 
 certain minimum of commodities are essential to "sat- 
 isfy ' ' the peasants, just as beads are necessary to extract 
 valuables from the savages. The answer to this question 
 is simple indeed. The commodities are to be obtained 
 at the expense of the foreign and domestic enemy, the 
 big and little bourgeoisie, the capitalists and the peas- 
 ants. The patrimony of the Russian people or a large 
 part of it is to be offered to foreign concessionaires at 
 an enormous sacrifice, the argument of the concession- 
 aires being that the uncertainty of continued Bolshevist 
 rule and the vagaries of their methods demand a huge 
 reward, while the Bolshevists' calculation is that they 
 will be released of the entire debt by world revolution. 
 Or, if the world revolt does not materialize the future 
 generation (90 per cent of it pheasants) will pay.
 
 244 APPENDIX IV 
 
 Here is Lenin's answer to his question: 
 
 So long as the revolution has not yet broken out in 
 other countries, we must not grudge the hundreds of 
 millions and milliards, which our boundless resources 
 and our rich raw materials afford us, as a compensation 
 for the trade that the advanced capitalist countries may 
 give us. We shall later recover all this with advantage 
 to ourselves. 
 
 There is no thought either for the future Russia or 
 for its population. The entire object which may be 
 achieved if other nations lend themselves to this ma- 
 neuver is to maintain the dictatorship of the Commu- 
 nist Party, which Lenin insists upon calling the dictator- 
 ship of the proletariat. As he himself sums up his 
 position : 
 
 The situation is now this : either we must economically 
 satisfy the medium peasants and consent to a, freedom of 
 commodity exchange, or it will be impossible to maintain 
 the power of the proletariat in Russia, in view of the 
 slowing down of the international revolution. (Our 
 italics.) 

 
 APPENDIX V 
 CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 
 
 THE OFFICIAL BRITISH WHITE PAPER ON ECONOMIC AND 
 POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA 
 
 THE British-Soviet Trade Treaty was signed in March, 
 1921, after nine months of intensive negotiations. In 
 May the British courts decided that this treaty amounted 
 to a de facto recognition of the Soviet Government. But 
 actual trading on any considerable scale depends not 
 upon paper documents but upon the granting of huge 
 credits. Without such credits the trade treaty will have 
 little if any economic results. The official British White 
 Paper on Russia, issuejl in that same month, shows that 
 there are no grounds whatever upon which any intelli- 
 gent investor would provide such funds. 
 
 When the British Government first began to consider 
 the trade treaty it appointed a special committee of 
 prominent business men to collect data on the subject. 
 Selected in May, 1920, this committee reported in Feb- 
 ruary, 1921, and a summary of its findings is now pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Its main conclusions may be stated as follows : 
 
 a. There can be no important Eussian exports for a 
 considerable time to come. 
 
 6. There can be no economic regeneration of Russia 
 at all without foreign capitalist aid, i.e., credits. 
 
 e. It is highly questionable if there can be any regen- 
 
 245
 
 246 APPENDIX V 
 
 eration of Russia even gradually and with capitalist aid 
 as long as Bolshevist rule continues. 
 
 As regards resumption of trade between Russia and 
 other countries the report says: 
 
 We are convinced that for the economic equilibrium 
 of the world the exports from Russia are most important 
 factors to the European market. We do not, however, 
 consider that Russia will be in a position to make its 
 contribution toward the relief of Europe for a consider- 
 able time to come. There can be no question of the 
 export of cereals in the immediate future. 
 
 It is our conviction that there is no possibility of 
 economic regeneration of Russia in the near future with- 
 out the assistance of capitalist countries. Our conclu- 
 sions with regard to the rendering of sueh assistance are 
 guided by the following considerations: 
 
 1. That the destruction of capitalism by violence, not 
 only in Russia, but in other countries, is the deliberate 
 aim and purpose of the Russian Communist Party, which 
 forms the Government of Soviet Russia at the present 
 time. 
 
 2. That, to this end, the Third or Communist Inter- 
 nationale has been established at Moscow, and we believe 
 this has been done under the auspices of the Soviet Gov- 
 ernment, and with its financial and material support. 
 
 3. That the Russian Communist Party and the Third 
 Internationale are actively endeavoring to compass the 
 destruction by violence of capitalism in countries to 
 which the Soviet Government has addressed overtures for 
 trade. 
 
 4. That the Soviet Government, in destroying capital- 
 ism in Russia, has assisted to bring about a complete 
 collapse of industry in that country. 
 
 5. That, in face of this collapse, the Soviet Govern- 
 ment invites capitalists to help to restore Russian in- 
 dustry.
 
 CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 247 
 
 6. That the Soviet Government has carried on, up to 
 the present time, an active and widespread international 
 propaganda, and that had that propaganda achieved its 
 object, international capital, to which the Soviet Govern- 
 ment now turns for aid in restoring economic prosperity 
 to Russia, would have disappeared. 
 
 7. That the credit and capital required for Russia's 
 urgent needs are large; that no Government can give 
 this credit and capital on the scale required, and that 
 such aid can only be furnished by individual capitalists 
 or financial groups who are willing to provide the neces- 
 sary supplies in money or goods. 
 
 8. That it is inconceivable that the credit and capital 
 required in Russia should be provided by foreign capi- 
 talists as long as the destruction of capitalism and the 
 violent overthrow of so-called bourgeois Governments 
 remain the main object of the Russian Government, or 
 of the political forces by which it is controlled. 
 
 9. That if the Soviet Government renounce and 
 abstain from propaganda directed to the destruction of 
 capitalism and the established order in other countries, 
 it still remains to ~be seen how far in the near future 
 they will be able to arrest the process of economic dis- 
 integration and to lay a foundation upon which it will 
 be possible for Russian industry and agriculture once 
 more to develop and expand. 
 
 The report specifies certain changes in home and 
 foreign policy that are indispensable before there can 
 be any trade: "the complete renunciation of the Third 
 Internationale," safety of foreign business men in Rus- 
 sia, "the restoration of rail and river transport," "the 
 co-operation of the peasantry," and "the settlement of 
 the agrarian question." 
 
 The White Paper makes it more than doubtful, how- 
 ever, whether the Bolshevist regime could arrest "the
 
 248 APPENDIX V 
 
 process of economic disintegration" even if foreign capi- 
 talists encouraged and supported by tfieir governments 
 should come to its aid. One of its conclusions is : 
 
 That the state of administrative incompetence and 
 corruption into which the departments of the Soviet 
 Government have fallen militates against the proper dis- 
 tribution of available supplies among the population and 
 must be remedied if the Russian worker is to be restored 
 to the standard of health and strength necessary to re- 
 establish the diminished productivity of his labor. 
 
 On the main industrial policy of the Soviets, the 
 nationalization of the leading industries which, together 
 with the nationalization of import and export trade, 
 remains unaltered after the "reforms" of March (1921) 
 the British report says: 
 
 The Soviet government, in a situation calling for the 
 exercise of the utmost discrimination and care, carried 
 out the policy of nationalization in haste, without taking 
 account of the disorder already prevailing in Russia, of 
 the complex structure of modern industry, of the absence 
 of expert technical assistance, and of the disabilities re- 
 sulting from the lack of knowledge and experience under 
 which they themselves labored. 
 
 The document further declares that, as a result of this 
 nationalization, "the power of officialdom in Russia has 
 developed on a scale to which there is no parallel, and 
 represents an attempt to control completely the condi- 
 tions of work and leisure, of food and drink, of educa- 
 tion and amusement, of travel, and even of the home life 
 of every individual in a nation whose population even 
 now exceeds 120,000,000." The report adds that recent
 
 CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVE!) BY CAPITAL? 249 
 
 evidence shows that the tendency toward State control 
 is increasing rather than diminishing. 
 
 "It would appear," says the report, in summing up 
 the persecution of labor and of the peasantry, ' ' that the 
 Soviet Government must decide whether they are going 
 to maintain a policy of political repression at home and 
 aggressive Bolshevist propaganda abroad, which will in- 
 evitably, whatever international treaties they may make, 
 lead in practice to a continuance of their present eco- 
 nomic isolation, or whether they will accept and hon- 
 estly carry out the fundamental condition which can 
 alone obtain for them the outside aid they so urgently 
 need. 
 
 "If they decide to maintain the campaign for the 
 violent destruction of capitalism in other countries, and 
 the policy of ruthless repression which makes it impos- 
 sible for foreigners to live and to do business in Russia, 
 then Russia will of necessity be left to her own resources. 
 Then will the future show whether or not the combined 
 effect upon the worker of persuasion as to the merits 
 of communism, and of persuasion by payment for work 
 done with the shadow of imprisonment and the bayonet 
 ever present, can restore the old productive power of 
 Russia within the short time available for the experi- 
 ment. 
 
 "If it does not Trotzky himself admits that the Rus- 
 sian Socialist Society is on its way to ruin, however it 
 may twist and turn." 
 
 Bolshevism or Sovietism consists in such, nationaliza- 
 tion and State control and in the rule of a minority by 
 repression the only way a minority can rule. The 
 moment this control is abandoned and the peasants and
 
 250 , APPENDIX V 
 
 workmen are freed and repression is discontinued Bol- 
 shevism will have ceased to be. But all the evidence 
 shows that the Bolshevist Party and its leaders have 
 never for one moment considered either the cessatioD 
 of repression, or the abandonment of their dictatorship. 
 
 It must be noted that the parts of the British report 
 so far published in America do not deal with weighty 
 political questions such as -the commercial integrity of 
 the Soviets or the probability that the succeeding gov- 
 ernment will repudiate their transactions. Nor do they 
 touch upon certain vital economic factors. The Soviets 
 propose to pay for the needed imports chiefly by con- 
 cessionssince they have so little to export. Lomov, the 
 head of the concessions division of the Soviet Qrovern- 
 ment, declares that the Bolshevists are now ready to 
 grant concessions not only in forests and mines but in 
 oil and in the iron and steel industry. He confesses, 
 however, that a serious problem is created by the higher 
 wages the concessionaries would pay their skilled labor 
 when compared with Russian wages, by the difficulty of 
 feeding it, by the Soviet labor laws, etc. Lomov 's ad- 
 missions suggest another whole nest of additional ob- 
 stacles to the regeneration of Russia by foreign capital 
 and foreign trade. These are doubtless among the rea- 
 sons why as Lomov also admits not one concession of 
 importance has yet been accepted by foreign capital ! 
 
 The White Paper, besides its interesting conclusions as 
 to the probable practical outcome, goes to some extent 
 into causes. For example, the antagonism of town and 
 country is one of the most frightful of the existing con- 
 ditions. As to the cause for this, the British report 
 concludes :
 
 CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 251 
 
 That having due regard to the causes of economic dis- 
 organization antecedent to the rise of the Bolsheviks to 
 power, the attempts of the Bolsheviks to realize the class 
 war in the towns by a precipitate nationalization of 
 industry and in the villages by the establishment of the 
 dictatorship of the village poor were the principal con- 
 tributory causes of the gradual separation of town from 
 city. 
 
 The practical efforts of Bolshevism up to the present 
 time, so far as they affect production, have been a dis- 
 astrous failure. The magnitude of the industrial col- 
 lapse in Russia and the consequent cessation of exchange 
 of products between town and country are the factors 
 that have forced themselves particularly on our atten- 
 tion. We know of no similar instance of a collapse so 
 complete, so sudden and so far-reaching, although a 
 similar tendency is to be observed in Central Europe, 
 and more especially in those countries which formerly 
 composed the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Want existed 
 in Paris during the revolutionary period, but it was 
 submitted to for the sake of the political liberty sought 
 by the people, and there was no general economic 
 debacle such as has occurred in Russia. 
 
 The White Paper also points out that the financial 
 policy of the Soviets is leading rapidly to inevitable 
 bankruptcy. In 1918 and 1919 expenditure was three 
 and two and one-half times income. In 1920 expendi- 
 ture was seven and one-half times income. The report 
 continues : 
 
 In spite therefore of wholesale confiscation of prop- 
 erty and repudiation of debt the three years of Soviet 
 rule have resulted in a deficit of enormous size and 
 rapidly increasing magnitude. These deficits are being 
 met by issues of paper which, month by month, become 
 of less value. That the present state of things cannot 
 continue is certain.
 
 252 APPENDIX V 
 
 That is, wholesale confiscation and debt repudiation 
 were but a drop in the bucket in view of the mad Bol- 
 shevik finance. 
 
 It might be supposed that this report, at last, would 
 be enough to satisfy the pseudo-liberal pro-Bolshevists 
 as to the character of the Soviets. What is our amaze- 
 ment to find it also being interpreted as a pro-Soviet 
 document! The same leading Democratic newspaper, 
 one of the chief supporters of President Wilson in this 
 country, already quoted in Chapter I, declares that the 
 White Paper shows that Lenin and Trotzky "have been 
 doing their utmost since they were freed of the threat 
 of invasion, 'to establish a system of individual control 
 in industry in place of the collective system which has 
 proved a failure, ' to repair locomotives and rolling stock, 
 to revive industry and avoid famine by conscripting 
 labor, to end bureaucratic control in local affairs and to 
 encourage trade with other nations. They have not 
 succeeded even passably in any of these undertakings, 
 but it is plain that they have endeavored to apply a con- 
 structive programme in the face of disorganization and 
 disorder for which modern history has no parallel. 
 
 "Whether disorganization and disorder would have 
 struck so deep in Russia after the war with any other 
 Government in power it is too late now to decide. Even 
 to-day some of the countries of Central Europe are only 
 a little better off than Russia; if they had been obliged 
 to endure an Allied blockade they might have been no 
 nearer recovery in 1921 than their neighbor to the east." 
 
 An unparalleled inversion of the facts. "Individual 
 control" by Soviet bureaucrats is the control to which 
 the White Paper refers, and this was accomplished a
 
 CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 253 
 
 year or two ago. Lenin and Trotzky have Hot done their 
 "utmost" because they are still working first, last, and 
 all the time for Bolshevism and Communism as the 
 report demonstrates. It also shows that the conditions 
 in Eastern Europe are not "only a little better," and 
 that the blockade can not be held as the sole or chief 
 cause of Russia's plight. 
 
 A leading Republican organ speaks of the new trad- 
 ing conditions established in March, 1921, as permitting 
 "the factory owners" (!) to begin making things they 
 believed could be traded to the Soviets for food. This 
 also betrays amazing ignorance. Factory owners in 
 Soviet Russia! The factories are all (except petty work- 
 shops) owned by the Soviets. This is the very essence 
 of Bolshevism. The real conditions introduced by the 
 March decree permitting restricted and local trade are 
 portrayed in a Washington dispatch to the New York 
 Times (May 28) based on information from Soviet 
 sources : 
 
 The Moscow Soviet has issued licenses to trade to the 
 following: Bars in the theaters, tea houses, restaurants, 
 gastronomic shops, dairy shops, butchers, green grocers, 
 and owners of kiosks. Lately many artisans' workshops 
 have been opened, hatters, shoemakers, etc.; big indus- 
 tries, however, are at a standstill, and the general eco- 
 nomic life reminds one rather of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The only big or Sovietized industries "prospering" 
 are those engaged in the manufacture of arms.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Agrarian Revolt, 126 
 
 Agriculturists (Peasants), 11, 14, 15, 29, 33, 41, 45, 68, 79, 104- 
 
 124, 240-244 
 Alpine, 230 
 America: 
 
 (1) and the Soviets, 1-19, 26, 156, 157, 207, 208, 224- 
 
 227 
 
 (2) Bolshevist Press on, 22, 23, 24, 25 
 
 (3) Gompers-Hughes Correspondence, 212-221 
 
 (4) Lenin on, 22, 149, 208, 209 
 
 (5) American Press on Soviet Reforms, 10, 11, 14-16, 120, 
 
 153, 250-253 
 
 (6) Trotzky on, 150 
 
 American Bar Association, Journal of, 235 
 
 American Communist (Bolshevist) Party, 24, 185 
 
 American Federation of Labor, 1, 7, 25, 165, 170, 181, 185, 228- 
 
 236 
 
 American Socialist Party, 18, 19 
 American Socialists, Loyal, 230, 231 
 Amsterdam International, see International Federation of Trade 
 
 Unions 
 
 Australia, 174 
 Armenia, 190, 191 
 Art, 133 
 
 Assassination, see Terrorism. 
 Asia, 156, 157 
 Autocracy, Industrial and Political, 78, see also Dictators and 
 
 Dictatorship. 
 Avanti, 188 
 
 255
 
 256 INDEX 
 
 Bailed, 189, 190 
 
 Bartuel, 183 
 
 Bavaria, 143, 149, 150 
 
 Belgium, 186, 231 
 
 Bidegaray, 183 
 
 Blockade, The, 66 
 
 Bondfield, Margaret, 63, 118 
 
 Boni, Albert, 85 
 
 Bonus System, 82, 83, 86 
 
 Bourgeoisie, see Middle Class, Capital, Democracy 
 
 Brailsford, 107 
 
 Brest-Litovsk Treaty, 207, 211 
 
 British Labor Party, 4, 34, 52, 64-67, 138, 161, 162, 186, 188, 
 
 190, 198, 199, 201, 202, 223 
 British Socialists, see British Labor Party 
 Britisk White Paper, see White Paper 
 Brousilloff, 100 
 Bukharin, 160 
 Bulgaria, 182 
 Bureaucracy, 126, 127, 189-191 
 
 Capital, Foreign, see Trade Agitation and Concessions 
 
 Chernov, 53, 64, 68 
 
 Children, 134-141 
 
 China, 223 
 
 Chinese, 60 
 
 Civil War Advocated, 143, see also Class Struggle 
 
 Class-War, 46, 47, 106, 108 
 
 Code of Labor Laws, see Labor Laws 
 
 Colby, Secretary, 1, 2, 4, 10, 145 
 
 Communist Labor, 84 
 
 Communist (or Third Internationale), 18, 22, 23, 25, 31, 38, 44, 
 
 45, 46, 144, 146, 148, 150-168 
 "Communist Manifesto," 132
 
 INDEX 257 
 
 Communist Party, Russian, 28, 30, 31-48, 67, 73, 85, 90, 91, 
 
 115, 118, 142 
 "Compromises" and "Reforms," 6, 14-16, 112-116, 121-124, 
 
 209, 210 
 
 Compulsory Labor, 6, 66, 72-87 
 Concessions 170, 175, 182, 192, 203, 206, 226, 227, 243, 245-253, 
 
 see also Trade Agitation 
 "Conservative" Bolshevism, 12, 14 
 Conscription of Labor, see Compulsory Labor 
 Constitutional Assembly, 15, 28, 107 
 Cooperatives, 14, 117-120 
 Counter-Revolution, see Terrorism 
 Cossacks, 59 
 
 Credit, Foreign, see Trade Agitation and Concessions 
 Crispien, 18, 158, 188 
 Culture, 98, 133, 134-141 
 
 Dalin, 62, 64 
 
 D'Arragona, 160, 182, 183, 188 
 
 Dan, 64 
 
 De Brouckere, 190 
 
 Decrees, Government by, 128, 129 
 
 Democracy, Bolshevism vs., 28-48, 78, 104, 142, 188-190, 
 
 200 
 
 Desertion, Labor, 58, 74, 75, 86, 97 
 Dictators, Factory, 77 
 Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 7, 10, 19, 28, 30, 33, 37, 38, 
 
 91, 114, 122, 193 
 Disciplinary Labor Juries, 129 
 Disorganization, Economic, 126 
 Dittmann, 18, 189 
 Djerzinsky, 68, 98, 99 
 Duffy, 230 
 Dugoni, 188
 
 258 INDEX 
 
 Dumoulin, 183, 194 
 Duncan, 230 
 
 Economic Collapse, 125-133, 245-253 
 Economic Conference (Soviet), 42, 78 
 Education^ 26, 107, 143-141 
 Egypt, 223 
 
 Elections, 35, 36, 71, 94 
 Electrification of Russia, Proposed, 241, 242 
 Extraordinary Commission for Fighting Counter-Revolution, 
 see Terrorism 
 
 Factory Soviets, 72 
 
 Family, The, see Home 
 
 Farbman, Michael, 10, 112 
 
 Faure, 192 
 
 Finmen, 194 
 
 Fisher, 235, 236 
 
 Food, Requisition of, see Taxation in Kind 
 
 France, 22, 149, 154, 157, 184, 206, 207 
 
 Freedom, see Terrorism 
 
 Freedom of Press, see Free Speech 
 
 Free Speech, 26, 34, 36, 104, 189, 193 
 
 "Free Trade," 14, 43, 113-118, 241-244 
 
 Freiheti, Die, 239 
 
 French Confederation of Labor (C. G. T.), 53, 169, 173, 180 
 
 183, 191 
 
 French Revolution, 10, 164 
 
 French Socialist Party (now Communist), 147, 155, 171, 188 
 Friss, 108 
 
 Georgia, 143, 190, 191, 237-240 
 
 German Socialists, 18, 63, 154, 172, 186, 188-190, 231, 239 
 Germany, 4, 22, 150, 154, 156, 158, 177-182, 184 
 Gompers, 6, 25, 181, 211-215, 228-236
 
 INDEX 259 
 
 Gorky, 130, 131 
 
 Goutor, 100 
 
 Great Britain, 3, 14, 32, 149, 156, 157, 161, 162, 173, 174, 184, 
 
 203-205, 206, 208, 209, 223-224, 235-253 (see also British 
 
 Labor Party) 
 "Green Annies, "59 
 Green, William, 230 
 Guest, Haden, 63 
 
 Harding, President, 3, 10 
 
 Hearst Newspapers, 9 
 
 Henderson, Arthur, 21, 170, 186 
 
 Herald, London Daily, 4, 166, 168 
 
 Holland, 186 
 
 Home, War against the, 135, 140 
 
 Home, Sir Robert, 204 
 
 Hostages, 52-55 
 
 Hours of Labor, see Overtime 
 
 Hughes, Secretary, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 132, 203, 215-221 
 
 Hungary, 143, 149, 195 
 
 Hungarians, 60 
 
 Huysmans, 186, 190, 191 
 
 Independent Labor Party (British), 161, 162 
 
 India, 184, 223 
 
 Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), 175-182, 185 
 
 Inefficiency,- 130, 131, 248 
 
 Intellectuals, 51, 128, 172, 189, 199, 214 
 
 International Federation of Trade Unions, 170, 171, 173, 184, 
 
 185, 190, 194-197 
 Intervention, 66 
 Italy, 4, 149, 150, 154, 206, 210 
 Italan Confederation of Labor, 160, 171, 177 
 Italian Socialists, 18, 45, 63, 149, 150, 166, 188-190
 
 260 INDEX 
 
 Japan, 22, 156, 206 
 Jugo-Slavia, 182 
 Justice, 235, 236 
 Jouhaux, 183, 191, 194 
 
 Kalinin, 70, 115, 116, 126, 144 ' 
 
 Kameneff, 4, 155, 156, 206, 207 
 
 Kaplan, 55 
 
 Kautsky, 169, 190 
 
 Kefali, 92 
 
 Kerensky, 47, 52, 137, 164, 170, 241 
 
 Kliefoth, 221 
 
 Krassin, 94, 167, 198, 203, 204, 205, 208, 210, 224 
 
 Krestinsky, 109 
 
 Kronstadt Rebellion, 208 
 
 Kropotkin, 126, 127 
 
 Labor Army, Red, 77, 79, 85 
 
 Labor Conscription, see Compulsory Labor 
 
 Labor Delegations to Soviet Russia 
 
 "Labor Opposition," 97, 98 
 
 Labor Unions, see Trade Unions 
 
 Lansbury, 4 
 
 Latsis, 50, 55 
 
 Laws, Labor, 72-87 
 
 League of Nations, 142 
 
 Lenin (Lenin is quoted under nearly all the topics of the present 
 
 volume. Refer to topical titles) 
 Lennon, 230 
 Letts, 60 
 
 Libby, F. J., 134, 135 
 "Liberals," Pro-Bolshevist, 14, 19, 120, 133, 140, 164, 189, 199, 
 
 214, 223-227, see also Middle-Classes and Intellectuals 
 Liberty, see Terrorism 
 Liebknecht, 54
 
 INDEX 261 
 
 Lloyd George, 211 
 London Daily News, 21, 22 
 Longuet, 169 
 Losovsky, 104, 177, 182 
 Lunacharsky, 137, 138 
 Luxemburg, 54 
 
 MacDonald, 186, 190 
 
 Mahon, 230 
 
 Martens, "Ambassador," 7 
 
 Martoff, 55, 87 
 
 Marx, 32, 148, 206 
 
 Massacres, see Terrorism 
 
 McLean, 161 
 
 Menshevists, see Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia 
 
 Merrheim, 53, 183, 192 
 
 Metal Workers Union, Russian, 75, 76 
 
 Middle Glass, Bolshevist Success among, 153, 154 
 
 Militarism, see War 
 
 Militarization of Labor, 75, 79-81, 95 
 
 Minor, 0. S., 201, 202 
 
 "Moderates," Bolshevists, see "Conservatives," Bolshevist 
 
 Morrison, 230 
 
 Nansen, 222 
 
 Nationalization of Import and Export Trade, 248 
 
 Nationalization of Industry, 116-120, 248 
 
 New York World, 16 
 
 Non-partisans, 37, 48 
 
 Norwegian Socialists, 108 
 
 O'Connell, 230 
 Ossinsky, 42, 97, 112, 113 
 Oudegeest, 194 
 Overtime, 76, 83, 86
 
 262 INDEX 
 
 Paris Commune, 29 
 
 Pacifism, 52 
 
 Paper and Printed Matter, Bolshevist Monopoly of, 26 
 
 Peasants, see Agriculturists 
 
 Perham, 230 
 
 Pestana, 179, 182 
 
 Press, Freedom of, see Free Speech 
 
 Printers' Union, Russian, 93, 99-103 
 
 Prisons, 68-70 
 
 Propaganda, Bolshevist, 4, 9, 18, 20-27, 136-139, 173, see also 
 
 Trade Agitation 
 
 Political Education Conference, 39, 163 
 Purcell, 63 
 
 Radek, 159, 160 
 
 Railway Workers, 50, 94, 95, 98 
 
 Rakovsky, 66, 67 
 
 Rappaport, 192 
 
 Recht, Charlesf 7 
 
 Recognition of the Soviets, Agitation fer, 1, 2, 203, 265, 225, 
 
 see also Trade Agitation 
 Reconstruction^, see Reforms 
 Red Labor Union International (or International Council of 
 
 Trade and Industrial Unions), 169-187, 194-197 
 Red Terror, see Terrorism 
 Reed, John, 161 
 Reforms, Social, 134-141 
 Revolt of Trade Unions, 94-103 
 Revolutionary Agitation, see World Revolt 
 Rois, 193 
 
 Rote Fahne, Die, 158 
 Rudzutuk, 129 
 Ruble, Otto, 180 
 
 Russian People, Voice of, 199-201 
 Russian Relief, 7, 8, 222
 
 INDEX 263 
 
 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, see Social Democratic 
 
 Labor Party 
 
 Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, see Socialist Revolution- 
 t ary Party 
 
 Russell, Bertrand, 18, 63, 107, 108 
 Rykov, 71, 149 
 
 Sabotage, 51, 52, 55, 58 
 
 Savinkov, 53 
 
 Schliapmkoff , 77, 97 
 
 Schools, see Education 
 
 Science, 133 
 
 Serbia, 231 
 
 Serrati, 45, 188 
 
 Shaw, Tom, 18, 63 
 
 Shop Stewards, 177-182 
 
 Slavery, see Compulsory Labor 
 
 Snowden, Philip, 21, 188 
 
 Snowden, Mrs., 18, 63 
 
 Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia (Menshevists), 85, 36, 
 
 52, 53-55, 56, 61-63, 64-67, 71, 137 
 Socialist (or Second) Internationale, 19, 31, 167, 168, 170, 174, 
 
 185-186, 192 
 
 Socialists on Sovietism (see Labor Delegations) 
 Social Revolutionary Party of Russia, 36, 52, 56, 137, 199-201 
 Socialist Review, 33 
 Soviet Elections, see Elections 
 Soviet Form of Government, 15, 33-36, 37, 42 
 Soviet Russia, 84 
 
 Spanish Socialists, 18, 45, 63, 179, 182, 193 
 State Capitalism, 16, 17 
 State Socialism, see State Capitalism, 36, 42 
 Steklov, 59 ' 
 Strikes, 76,j39 
 Sverdlov, 47"
 
 264 INDEX 
 
 Swedish Socialists, 18, 63, 186 
 
 Switzerland, 4 
 
 Syndicalists, 72, 97, 174, 177-183 
 
 Taxation in Kind, 14, 108-122 
 
 Tchitcherin, 206 
 
 Terrorism, 30, 31, 34, 43, 46, 49-71, 85, 96, 98, 106, 188, 189, 
 
 195, 235, 236, 249 
 Thomas, Albert, 170 
 Thomas, J. H., 194 
 Tomsky, 25, 177 
 
 Trade Agitation, 3-15, 203-227, 243, 245-253 
 Trade Treaties, see Trade Agitation 
 Trade Unions, 20, 25, 31, 33, 36, 37, 39, 63, 71, 74, 75, 83, 
 
 88-103, 169-187, 193 
 Transport Workers' Congress, 47 
 Troelstra, 186 
 Trotsky, 11, 12, 35, 36, 41, 50, 51, 60, 77, 79-82, 94, 95, 108, 
 
 143, 145, 148, 152, 165, 249 
 Tscheidze, 228, 229 
 Turks, 190, 191 
 Turkey, 223, 231, 238 
 Turner, Ben, 18, 63 
 Twenty-one Points, The (Communist Ultimatum to Socialist 
 
 Parties), 147, 155, 172, 192 
 
 Ukraine, 66, 67 
 
 Uritsky, 62, 54, 55 
 
 -, 
 
 Vacirca, 188 
 
 Valentine, 230 
 
 Vandervelde, 186 
 
 Versailles Treaty, 22, 207 
 
 Violence, see Terrorism 
 
 War, 45, 143, 155, 156, 237-239
 
 INDEX 265 
 
 Watts, A. J., 135 
 Wells, H. G., 107, 207 
 Wels, Otto, 186 
 White Paper, British, 245-253 
 Williams, Robert, 63 
 Wilson, ex-President, 4, 10 
 Wilson, ex-Secretary, W. B., 7, 8, 148 
 Wrangel, 53, 148, 193 
 
 World Revolution, Movement for, 3, 8, 12, 142-168, 240, 244, 
 226, 227 
 
 Yaroslav Prison, 68-70 
 
 Zemstvos, 133 
 
 Zinoviev, 31, 45, 89, 152, 159, 160, 166^167, 194-197 
 
 Zorin, 90
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 ami 
 
 ill 
 
 
 
 RECD J 
 
 111 1 S 1971 
 
 
 
 DEC 7 7 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 ffiCB D 
 
 C 7 1971 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GA YLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINT ED IN U.S .A.
 
 A 000513246 9